Konoha Days
by Aki Vos
Summary: A week in the life of Naruto, Sakura, and Sai as Tsunade sends them on vacation, ships are exploding and Naruto inherited a chest full of old letters. NOTE: this is a COMPLETE story. I know how it ends, ready for a new fan-fiction story!
1. Chapter One

"Just shut up and follow already." Ino growled. She grabbed Naruto by the collar and dragged him to a large tree by the river. "Look."

Ino pointed a finger out to the center of the river where Sakura was standing, three kunai in each hand. "What she doing?"

"I don't know but watch after a while… Look." Sakura dropped the kunai in the river and dropped to her knees. "Everyday after training with Tsunade she comes and acts like she's going to train and collapses."

"I'll go talk to her. Thanks for letting me know Ino." Naruto said and walked out on the river. As he moved closer Sakura looked over at him. "Um Sakura?"

"Nar…" She fell into the river. Naruto ran after her and caught the back of her shirt and pulled her out onto the surface.

"Oh my god! Sakura!" Ino ran out and sat down next to Sakura, carefully checking the pulse in her wrist. "She's fine, breathing alright to."

"Ino, why's she exhausting herself?" Naruto asked as he picked her up in his arms.

"I don't know. Let's take her home, she needs rest. Can't have her passing out whenever I try and fight her?" Ino laughed nervously. Naruto nodded and they jumped into the trees on the way to Konoha.

"Hey Ino."

"Hm?"

"Why do you and Sakura fight constantly." Ino's face changed and she began thinking. "I mean…" Naruto pushed himself of the branch hard to keep up with her, the weight of an unconscious Sakura affecting his speed. "Sasuke and I fought because we wanted to prove that we were strong, but after Sasuke left what are you arguing for?"

"I never thought of it that way. I guess it keeps us busy." Ino smiled and they landed in front of the cage in Training Ground 4. "And I guess it's a way to remember Sasuke. Anyway, we'll find something new to fight over soon enough, Naruto. We always do."

* * *

"Okay! So what's the plan!"

"Um… I jump out and I um…"

"This isn't going to work. It's going to embarrass her like it normally does." Shino said looking over at them.

"Aburame! Close your big fat mouth! It will work! Now Hinata!" Kiba shouted.

"Yes!"

"Jump out and fall into him! It'll work!"

"Yes!"

"Hinata needs to work on talking to him before…"

"SHUT UP! I know what I'm doing Shino."

"You obviously don't, Kiba."

"Um, guys?"

"Quiet Hinata, I'm busy yelling at Shino!"

"But…"

"Kiba I think…."

"Listen you… creepy ass bug guy! Hinata is ready enough!"

"Kiba, he's coming." Hinata whimpered.

"And I…. oh, really?" Kiba rushed to the end of the fence and saw the top of the yellow hair. "That's him, on the count of four jump."

"Kiba!" Shino said sternly.

"One, two…"

"Kiba! Don't!"

"Three!" Kiba shoved Hinata into the street. Hinata closed her eyes and hit something soft. She opened her eyes to purple and back away to see she hit Ino.

"Hey, Hinata? What's the big deal?" Ino said. Hinata backed away quickly and tried to apologize.

"I'm sorry… I thought… I thought…"

"We thought you were Naruto." Shino said walking out. "Kiba had an idea to try and physically injure both of them to spark romance."

"Well if that's not the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Wait, Hinata. You like Naruto?" Ino said looking at her. She stood back up and started shaking her hand. "You deserve way better then him. Naruto's annoying, selfish and can only think about getting Sasuke back."

"But I…"

"Then again, who am I to judge? I'm in!"

"In?" Kiba said rounding the corner. "What do you mean in?"

"I'm going to get Naruto in love with Hinata!" She said happily. "Oh this is going to be awesome! Think about it, me a matchmaker! You know I've got the looks and the charm of some with great expertise!"

"Hey Shino," Kiba whispered. "What do we do?"

"Grab Hinata and run on three." Shino responded. "Three!" Shino grabbed Hinata's right arm and Kiba grabbed her left and they ran away leaving Ino talking to herself.

"This is going to be great huh? HEY!" Ino sighed, "I have to start keeping my eyes open when I rant."

* * *

"Oh, thank you for bringing her home. She's been working so hard with the Hokage-sama, comes home tired every day. Um, do you think you could carry her up to her room, I lack that ninja strength?" Mrs. Haruno said smiling and making a strong man pose.

"Sure." Naruto said trying not to laugh.

"Okay! Follow me." Mrs. Haruno lead him upstairs and into a small hallway. "Here we are. Just set her on the bed." She opened the door and moved out of the way. Naruto walked in to the tiny room and carefully set Saukra on the bed. "So your on her team?"

"Uh… Yes. I'm…"

"Wait, let me guess." She started hitting her chin with her finger. "Oh you Naruto right?"

"Yes."

"Sakura says you saved the Kazekage. What an accomplishment that is! You know my little Sakura just goes on and on about your missions, like I have no housework to do at all. Well, I have to keep cleaning, if you want you can stay up here till she wakes up, she'll probably want to thank you. Anyway, It's nice to meet you." Mrs. Haruno walked away humming and Naruto heard footsteps on the stairs.

"Sakura, how are you related to that woman?" Naruto said amazed. He took off his sandals and sat on the side of the bed looking out the window. He slid back, laid his head on the wall and fell asleep.

* * *

"Chouji! Close your mouth when you eat!" Shikamaru yelled.

Kurenai laughed, "It's okay, I'm used to bad manners. You don't have to protect me form those."

"But still, he's embarrassing." Shikamaru groaned.

"You're just jealous because you can't fit three whole kebabs in your mouth." Chouji said grabbing three and shoving them in his mouth. He ate them and pulled out the stick. "You know if you don't like the way I eat you shouldn't invite me to lunch with you."

"What do you know… I didn't. Oh well, at least Ino's not here."

"SHIKA! CHOUJI!" Ino said crashing in. Shikamaru looked up and saw her take a quick seat next to Chouji. "We have to help Hinata!"

"Is she in danger!" Kurenai said standing up slamming her fists on the table.

"Well… no…. But Kiba and Shino are going to ruin her chances with Naruto! They have no idea what they're doing. They tried to throw her at him, literally!" Kurenai sat down slowly and laughed. "It's not funny."

"It is, declares the sexy big sister."

"Kurenai, don't call yourself that anymore."

"Oh, you're such a spoil sport, Shika. I say let them try, one of these days Hinata's going to get fed up with their tricks and just go tell him." She smiled.

"But, we should help her." Ino said.

"Ino, you've known for long enough that Naruto doesn't see her that way, it's more of a friend thing." Shikamaru said seriously. "What if we all help and he says no. It'd be better to let Hinata express herself the way she wants to be seen."

"So true." Chouji added. "I mean, ten to one Naruto's going to end up lonely because he's head over heels for Sakura."

"What?" Ino looked at him, "You're serious?"

"What do you mean what? He's asked her out like fifty billion times."

"Even I knew that." Kurenai said. "Oh, well. You guys all have plenty of time, your only fifteen and sixteen. Spend you childhood in sunny days, friends and killing enemies."

"You didn't." Shikamaru smiled, sticking a kebab in his mouth.

* * *

"Team Guy! It's time to learn a new formation!" Guy said as he gave one of his best thumbs up and smile combination.

"Yes Sensai!" Lee said happily.

"It doesn't have a stupid name like the others does it?" Tenten asked.

"NO! IT DOESN'T HAVE A STUPID NAME! IT'S NAME THE ULTRA FUN-TASTIC TEAM GUY SPECIAL COUNTER ATTACK!"Guy screamed.

"That's the worst one yet!"

"Actually, I thought the Fuzzy Eyebrows are Sexy Attack was." Neji said.

"You're probably right."

"How dare you! The Ultra Fun-tastic Team Guy Special Counter Attack will be amazing!" Lee said.

"This is how it goes! Okay everyone! Counter attack at once using the Might Guy Special Kick Attack!"

"Amazing!" Lee shouted. Tenten and Neji looked at each other.

"Sensai, how are we supposed to counter attack when no one's attacking?" Tenten pointed out.

Guy frowned, "okay, training is dismissed for today but don't be disappointed! Tomorrow at FIVE A.M. WE'LL BEGIN TO PRACTICE THE ULTRA FUN-TASTIC TEAM GUY SPECIAL COUNTER ATTACK! I'M OFF TO FIND SOME WORTHY OPPONETS!"

"Yes Sensai!" Lee saluted.

* * *

"Temari." Gaara said walking into her room. She had her bag out on her bed with several piles of clothes. Gaara held out a closed envelope. "Take this to the Hokage after you discuss that we can't make the date for the Chunin exam. It's a new date two weeks later. Ask her to please give us some leeway."

"Okay. So, how many Genin are going out for Chunin this year?" She asked taking the scroll and putting it in her side bag on her belt.

"Fifteen."

"That's way more than last year."

"We've trained them better. Temari, could you do me a favor?"

She looked over at her little brother. "Could you take this to Naruto Uzumaki?" He pulled out a letter four times thicker then the one to Tsunade.

"Sure thing." She said smiling.

* * *

Sakura woke up because she felt hot. She opened her eyes to see the few flickers of light streaming in her from the window. She shifted slightly and felt something on her leg. She looked down to see Naruto laying on her, happily sleeping. She sat up and shook him. "Naruto. Naruto."

"Uh… Sakura…" He bolted up and looked at her. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, why?"

"You passed out at the river and nearly drowned." Naruto said sitting up. "Don't you remember?"

She shook her head. "I remember going to the river, I was going to practice throwing Kunai but then I just woke up here. Hey, why are you waking up here?"

"You're mom said I could stay until you woke up, but I passed out." He said scratching his head. He slowed his scratching down then patted his forehead. "Where's my forehead protector? I had it on before I fell asleep."

Naruto started patting the bed around him and the jumped up to reveal nothing. Sakura shrugged, "it's got to be around here somewhere."

"Oh well. Just give it to me if you find it. I better get home before I pass out again. Bye Sakura-chan." Naruto said opening her window.

"Bye." Naruto jumped from the window out onto the street.

* * *

Temari waved goodbye to Gaara and walked out into the setting desert sun with Matsuri. "Bye, I'll keep Matsuri safe, Gaara."

"Bye Gaara-Sensai!" Matsuri said turning around quickly to wave. Gaara waved back quickly and Matsuri turned around. "So, Temari, are you excited about this year's Chunin exam?"

"Not especially."

"What, why not?"

"Because its two days travel there then two back, plus, it's a lot of damage to you skin being out in the sun."

"I thought it took three."

"Not at my speed, you'll get exhausted. In five minutes the sun will set and it will be twenty degrees cooler so we can run longer."

"I have a feeling I'm going to be half dead when we get there."

* * *

"Oh my god." Ino said and ducked behind a tree. She couldn't believe her eyes when she saw Naruto jump from Sakura's window that late at night. She watched as he jumped rooftop to roof top away and as Sakura walked over to her window and shut it, letting the blinds down.

Ino turned around and ran back to the dinner where they were having dinner. She ran in to find Shikamaru, Chouji and Lee talking while Neji and Tenten were reviewing a scroll with Kurenai. "SHIKA! CHOUJI! Oh my god! You won't believe what I just saw."

"What did you look in a mirror and see no reflection?" Shikamaru joked.

"I can see my reflection just fine just like I can see Naruto sneaking out of Sakura's bedroom!" The shinobi went quiet. "It was less then a minute ago."

Kurenai shook her head, "Ino, did you say that Sakura collapsed this afternoon?"

"Well, yeah."

"Isn't it possible he was there taking care of her?"

"Well, I guess. I never thought of it that way."

"Either way, don't let this get to you know who. Got that everyone!?" She said staring back at the rest of them, one by one they all nodded.

"Wait, you all know about Hinata's crush."

"Hasn't it been obvious?" Neji asked.

"He's right. We've all know for years." Lee added.

Ino sat down, "I feel so left out."

* * *

Naruto fumbled for his keys and found them in his pocket. He unlocked the door and walked inside to the peace and quiet. Stripping of his jacket and shirt he fell over and landed on the bed. "Finally my own bed."

"Yes it must be more comforting."

"Yep, it is." Naruto said. He paused and grabbed his flash light and turned it on. Lying in bed next to him was Sai. "SAI! WHAT ON EARTH DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!"

"My apartment was flooded, something about toilets and some Genin. I've decided to stay with you until they fix it on Wednesday." He smiled and rolled over. "Well, good night Naruto-kun."

Naruto felt his eye twitching. "Sai… this is my bed!"

"I felt this matter would arise." Sai jumped on to the floor and unraveled his bed roll. "Now, good night Naruto-kun."

"Alright, good night." Naruto pulled the covers over his head and hit his head hard on his pillow, he fell asleep. Naruto dreamed not of his normal Sakura beating the living daylight or losing to Sasuke, but of sleeping and waking up in a warm place.


	2. Chapter Two

"Lee, unlike the rest of you, was right on time at five A.M. Good work Lee!" Guy said giving a huge thumbs up. "Now, our opponents, I found them wandering the streets roaring for a fight."

"Lair!" Naruto jumped out and shouted at Guy. "You broke into my room and screamed at the top of your lungs at four A.M."

"Naruto's not lying." Sai said with his twisted little smile. "In fact he nearly stepped on me crushing my head but luckily I heard him."

"Well… Where's our third person?" Tenten asked.

"That third person… IS ME! PREPARE YOURSELF YOUNG CHUNIN! HERE I GO!" Guy lundged at Neji when he was stopped. Tsunade stood in front of him.

"Might Guy! You have to in my office in ten minutes! Hurry and get your things. Neji you too! And Guy on your way back to my office stop and get Kakashi and Iruka!"

"Yes Hokage-sama!" Neji said and was gone from the training field.

"Oh! I was hoping we'd get to work on my…"

"GUY!" Tsunade yelled. He took a deep breath and gave a giant thumbs up.

"Watch!" He said taking a pose, "I will get Kakashi and Iruka and be back before you!"

"Really." Tsunade pierced her lip and changed down into Sakura. "I think she's got you beat."

"WHAT! THAT"S CHEATING!" Guy ran from the field leaving a giant dust cloud.

Sakura laughed and turned back in to Tsunade. "Guy will never learn. Naruto! Sai! You are to be in my office in a half an hour. Tenten! Lee! Are you two doing anything particulary important today?"

"No Tsunade-sama." Tenten said through a yawn. "We were going to train all day with Guy-Sensai but he's gone."

"Shizune needs help transferring books from my study back to the library later this afternoon. Would you care to help?"

"Of course Hokage-sama! We will be the best help ever!" Lee shouted with a fist in the air.

"Alright, dismissed." Tsunade stood there as three of the ninjas leaped away.

"Hey, Tsunade," Naruto said stepping foreword. "Do you know what's bothering Sakura-chan?"

"No," she said turning around. "Why? Is she alright?"

"Kind of, it's just she passed out while on the river yesterday and nearly drowned. We thought she might be training to hard with you."

"What? I didn't even see Sakura yesterday. She took a leave from the village and came back around two." Naruto looked down at the ground thinking. "Don't worry about it. We'll discuss this later." Tsunade walked away. "Oh, by the way, can you fetch Yamato for me? I think he's at the prayer stone. Later." She disappeared.

* * *

Tsunade sat at her desk and heard a knock at the door. "Come…" It was kicked open by Guy who walked in the room with Kakashi over one shoulder still sleeping and Iruka over the other half asleep. Neji walked in behind along with Shikamaru. "..In."

"Okay, were all here!" Guy shouted.

Kakashi looked up. "Am I dreaming?"

"No! Guy, set them down!" Tsunade pulled out a tiny piece of paper. "This is a message from the Land of Whirlpool. Some rouge ninja's ranked S in our bingo book have taken over a cove on the south shore line used for storing precious metals and other valuables that go out on boats. You will take them out, permanently.

"Kakashi, you will lead a team with Iruka and Shikamaru. Guy and Neji will get back the ships around the area that the rouges set loose. Careful, they may be booby trapped. You leave immediately!"

The room was empty then. Tsunade leaned back and took a deep breath. "Hokage is such exhausting work." There was a small knock at the door. "Come in."

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune said running in, "I can't find Tonton."

"Shizune, calm down, I'm sure she's alright. She probably went to get something to eat." Tsunade said taking a drink of Sake.

"You're drinking already this morning? It's only Six A.M!"

"It keeps me awake, like coffee."

"Lair!"

"Hello," Sai said knocking on the door. "May I come in Hokage-sama?"

"Sai, come in. Where's Naruto?"

"I don't know."

Tsunade sighed and took another drink. "Then I guess we'll…"

"Naruto Uzumaki is here!" He said running into the room. He looked around and saw everyone was quiet. "Did I miss something?"

"No, we're just getting started, Shizune, leave!"

"Uh… yes, Tsunade-sama." She said nervously and walked out, closing the doors behind her.

"Naruto, Sai, upon a request from Yamato and Kakashi, I'm sending you on vacation!"

"Vacation?" Sai asked. "What's that?"

"You don't know what vacation is? It's where you take time off and have fun instead of working!" Naruto turned back to Tsunade, "so, when are we leaving?"

"Whenever you can get Sakura ready. Here." She said handing Sai an envelope. "You have four nights paid to this resort, courtesy Kakashi and Yamato, and a little from myself. It starts tonight, travel will take roughly seven hours. I must stress this, whatever you do, NO COMBAT!" She slammed her wrists on the desk, "got it."

"Yes, Hokagae-sama."

"You're the coolest old hag I know!" Naruto yelled.

"I'M GOING TO IGNORE THE LAST COMMENT NARUTO! Sai, you're dismissed." Tsunade stood up as Sai disappeared from the room. "Naruto follow me. You know it's been a while since Jiraiya has died."

Naruto nodded quietly.

"He left some things behind, I think you should have them." Tsunade arrived at a small room down the hall from her office. She pulled out her keys, fumbled for a minute and opened the door. Walking in and hitting the switch the room lit up to show a lot of things. "This is the room where we keep the most important items left behind by each Hokage. The amours of the First, Second, and Third Hokages, soon, I'll add some of my scrolls in case I die."

"What did the fourth leave behind?"

"Something that you can't keep in a room." She said and bent down to pick up a large chest of red and blue. "I'm not sure what's in here, but he left it with the Third. It's not that heavy." She said and handed it over to Naruto with ease. Naruto nodded. "There's one more thing. When Jiraiya left he left this with me." She pulled a box out off the shelf and set it on top of the crate. "Be careful with this. The fabric's wearing thin."

Tsunade left Naruto and returned to her office.

* * *

"I'm heading out now Mom!"

"BYE SUGAR!" Sakura growled at the annoyingness of her mother. She opened the door to find Sai about to knock.

"Ah, good morning Sakura-chan."

"Sai, good morning. What do want?"

"Tsunade has order us on vacation." Sai said handing her the envelope. Sakura opened it and read it.

"THIS IS THE MOST EXENSIVE RESORT IN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY!"

"From Captains Kakashi and Yamato and the Hokage-sama. We are to leave when you are ready. Tonight is already paid for." Sai said with a straight face. "Sakura-chan, what's a vacation? Naruto was confusing in his explanation."

"Well, it's time where you don't work, you relax, like when Yamato took us to the spa." She said, somewhat confused. "You can spend all day drawing!"

"That would be nice."

"Are we ready yet?" Naruto said running up with the giant chest and box.

"You sure did pack fast.' Sakura said flatly.

"Oh, these are my inheritance from Jiraiya." Naruto said quietly. "So are you ready?"

"Give me five minutes." Sakura said entering back into the house.

* * *

"Do you need to go to the hospital?" Hinata asked. She had just arrived at Kurenai's apartment. "You're not faring that well."

"It's called morning sickness." She said waving her in. "I'm going to be getting it a lot worse soon."

"Do you need help around the house, Shikamaru asked me to step in for him while he's away?" Kurenai smiled and nodded.

"If you would mind being company, that'd be a great help. I'll go put some tea on."

"Alright. So, how's the baby?" Hinata said stepping in and closing the door.

"Healthy, according to the doctors." Kurenai said stepping into her kitchen. Since becoming pregnant she began wearing lose fitting dresses which made her look terribly skinny. "So, what are you doing today?"

"I was going to go shopping later on; they have an outdoor craft market, today only."

"That sounds like fun, I might have to join you, I have to go shopping today too, but mine's grocery." Kurenai smiled and poured some water into the teakettle.

* * *

"What are all these books for?" Tenten asked grabbing a stack off the floor of Tsunade's private study.

"She's trying to create new techniques for healing. There are still plenty of wounds out there that can't be healed with our normal methods, some even can be healed with our most advanced." Shizune said leading Tenten and Lee out of the study and to the stairs.

"That's so cool!" Lee smiled, "if I had chakra I'd help her create those techniques and become the greatest medical ninja ever."

"Well, you're going to have to beat out Sakura, she's already surpassed Tsunade."

"No way! She's only trained three years." Tenten stepped off behind Shizune.

"I'll tell you a secret, if you promise not to tell." Shizune whispered over to Tenten. "She's found out how to make Tsunade most secret Justus already. I can't even do one of them."

* * *

"So I thought the Land of Whirlpool was dissolved?" Shikamaru said.

"It is." Irkua responded. "We still refer to the area as that; it makes it easier then saying what city."

"We should be arriving there by tonight if we keep at this speed. Guy and Neji are probably at the coast already with the pace they were at."

"Well, they have to go out to sea, who knows what weather they'll meet if they went out at night." Shikamaru landed on the tree branch and pushed off ahead of Kakashi and Iruka.

* * *

"Wow, you can see the beach!" Sakura said looking off her balcony. "I can't believe they paid for these rooms for us!"

"Whoever paid must be quite generous." The front desk woman said. "Here's the key card to the room. Also, they paid for you to have full access to the pool area and private spa."

"Thank you. Our squad captains paid for us, they're really kind." Sakura said taking the card.

"Have a good stay." She said and bowed. Walking out of the room Sakura returned to the other side and sat on the railing. "The night view is so pretty."

She took a deep sigh and looked down at the sandy shore. Naruto was slowly walking out on to the beach. He sat down slowly and picked up a stick to start drawing in the sand. Sakura jumped down and walked over and stood next to him. "It's really pretty tonight isn't it?"

"Huh," he said looking up to see he wasn't alone. "I guess." He looked back down at the sand and kept drawing.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing…" Naruto quickly moved to erase it but Sakura grabbed his arm and pulled him back. There in the sand was stick people, two large and one small. Sakura looked over at him; he pulled his arm back and erased it. "Happy?"

"Naruto, its okay to want a family." Sakura sat down next to him and hugged her legs into her chest.

"I don't want a family… I just want to know who I am." He said and began to draw things in the sand. "The Uchiha clan, everyone knows where they came from, the Nara clan, the Amburame clan, even you have at least your mother. All I have is the name Uzumaki. What good will that do me."

"I found something in a book once with your last name." Sakura then remembered exactly what she read. "The Uzumaki clan was a small ninja family in the Land of Whirlpool and all the members were destroyed… except one."

"So if I tried, I would find nothing." He said blandly. He stared up into the harvest moon and smiled, "At least I don't have to deal with a mom like yours."

"HEY!" She stopped and laughed. "I guess your right. My mom's kind of weird."

"Sakura… What's it like to have a mom?"

"Well, I only know my mom. She's kind of like a best friend that I have to listen to and can be annoying, but when I need her she's always there and know how to make me laugh again." Sakura smiled. "It's a kind version of Tsunade-sama."

"Tsunade would be a horrible mother!"

"Could be worse."

"What are you talking about?"

"If Tsunade turned out that way, then what was her mother like?"

He smiled and looked up into the sky. "Four nights doing nothing… Were going to have a lot of free time."

"I have books to go through." Sakura said, "nine of them I borrowed from the library, four I took from Tsunade, and then the eight I bought at the market today."

"Why do you need so many books?"

"It helps me learn about the body and how chakra affects it, plus the countless new discoveries they're making everyday. I have to keep up." She took a deep breath and sighed it out. "If I don't I won't be the best."

"Why do you want to be the best?" Naruto asked. "Being the best is a lot of work, it's what drive people mad, you should know that in all your books."

"Well, it's like you being Hokage."

"No, Hokage isn't the best. Plus it was a child's dream. I realized that. I mean, no one really believed in me."

"I did." Sakura got up and walked back to the side of the hotel and jumped on the balcony closing the doors behind her. Naruto looked back over the ocean and smiled.


	3. Chapter Three

Hinata woke up early. Finding nothing better to do she slipped on her shoes and walked outside to look at the still black sky. It was quiet with her being the only one in the house, she found it somewhat nice.

She stepped carefully onto the grass and looked up at the stars shining down on her, she though it was perfect outside.

"Hinata!" Kiba said running into the yard from inside, "There you are, have you forgot we have a mission to leave for?" She nodded and followed him as they made their way to the Hokage's office.

* * *

The body dropped in front of Kakashi. He put the bloody kunai away and turned to see Iruka kicking the last of the enemies to the floor. His body bounced up and down a couple times and landed, it was still. Shikamaru was already half way up the side of the cave to a carved out loft with a table and some papers.

He grabbed the nearest one and picked it up looking at it. He skimmed it for a second before he tossed it over to Kakashi. "We better get to Guy and Neji fast."

'The boats are rigged to explode.'

* * *

"Yippee!" Guy yelled as he picked Neji up around the waist and rode a piece of wood along the wave the boat had caused. "This is awesome!"

"We were nearly detonated!"

"That doesn't have to stop the fun!" Neji rolled his eyes and sighed. "I never learned how to surf before, what an experience!"

They rode to shore as the rest of the Kohona ninjas arrived. "HEY KAKASHI! BEAT ME AT THIS!"

"They're fine." Kakashi turned to Iruka, "I have to go check on my team, and you head back to Kohona and give the report okay?" Kakashi disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Why do we always have to give the reports?" Shikamaru complained.

Iruka rolled his eyes.

* * *

"What do you mean you don't have a bathing suit?" Sakura said looking over at Sai. "How do you go swimming?"

"I don't."

"Oh, well, we can go buy you one in town. Come on, Naruto probably won't wake up for another hour and a half." She said and grabbed her side bag. "You do have money right?"

"Is this enough for one?" Sakura looked in astonishment as Sai opened a bag full of bills. "It's roughly 164,000,000. Yeah…. But you have to buy me a new one two if I help you find one, okay?"

"That's fine, I never use my money." He put on that fake smiled and they headed out into the village that the resort was in. "So why do you go swimming when not on a mission?"

"It's not just that, its being in the sun and playing in the water." She said as they approached the first row of shops. "Let's look down here; I think there was a clothes store."

"Okay."

They walked for a minute or two until Sakura stopped in front of a little boutique. She looked at the bathing suits in the window and headed in. Sai followed her and looked at the lady behind the counter and smiled. Sakura approached her, "do you have any bathing suits?"

"They're in the back by the changing booths. If you need anything ask." She said pleasantly.

"Come on, let's find you something. So what color do you favor?" She said shifting through the stack of men's swim wear.

"I don't really favor any color."

"Then let's just go with black then. Here," she said pulling out one, "go try this on back there and come out so we see if it fits."

Sai walked into the nearest booth and closed the door. After a minute or so he walked back out and was messing with the draw stings, "what are these strings for?"

"Ignore them," Sakura gave him a once over and nodded, "Okay, that one works, go change back. I'm off to look for one for me." Sai headed back in and Sakura walked over to a shelf with swim suits on it.

"Looking for one for you now?" The lady said walking back.

"Yeah, but I don't know what to get." The lady looked at her then walked over to a rack with different clothes on it. "I found it." She pulled out a one piece with parts of the mid-drift cut away. "I think this will look good on you."

"Do you have it in red or pink?" Sakura asked. The lady nodded and handed her a different one that was dark red. "Thanks."

"Remember to try it on, don't want to get the wrong size." Sakura smiled and waited for Sai to come out to try it on. Once in she quickly undressed and threw it on. She checked herself in a mirror and smiled.

* * *

Naruto woke to a tapping on the door. "Come… in." He yawned. The door opened and Kakashi walked in. "It's nearly noon, what are you still doing in bed?"

"I was up…" he yawned again and pointed to the chest, "all night going through that. Still haven't finished this, but it's boring, looks like the original of Make-Out Paradise."

"An original." Kakashi sat down and grabbed the stack of papers. He looked through it quickly, "it is, where did you get this?"

"Tsunade gave me Jiraiya's old things. Haven't finished going through them. Where's Saukra?" He asked getting up.

"She's at the beach with Sai."

Naruto nodded. "So what are you doing here?"

"Checking up on you guys, just stopped in for a bit. Hey, Naruto, can I borrow this."

"You can keep it; I'm not planning on finishing it." Naruto stepped into the bathroom and quickly changed into his shorts. "I'm going down to the beach. Later, Kakashi-Sensai."

"Yeah, sure." Kakashi said reading the manuscript intensely.

* * *

"Hinata, over there." Kiba said looking up over the crowd at the city. "That's the woman we want." Kiba pulled out the warrant paper and held it up to her and nodded.

"Shino-kun," Hinata said pressing down on her microphone neck strap, "we have her at Third Street going into a bar."

"Hold steady, Kurenai and I are coming around." He said back in reply.

"Hinata," Kurenai said coming over, "she's friendly, just go give her Tsunade's letter, alright, and Kiba, don't say anything stupid."

Kiba pressed his microphone, "I thought you said she was friendly?" He stood up and jumped from the tree, Hinata followed.

"She is, but she has Tsunade's short temper." Kurenai rang in.

Hinata pulled the letter out of her pocket and held it in her hand. They went into the bar and approached the woman in the short red dress. Hinata stepped foreword and grabbed the warrant. "Excuse me Miss, by the warrant of the Hokage of Konohagakure; we have to escort you to the city."

She turned and laughed, "Is that how the old bat wants to play huh? Can't just give me a phone call? O-Kay, well let's get going then." She picked up her purse and held out her hands, "I'm Navi, one of Tsunade-sama's old students."

"I'm Hinata Hyuuga and this is my teammate Kiba." Kiba waved as Shino and Kurenai entered. "Oh and this is Shino and our Sensai…"

"Well if it isn't little Kurenai-chan, haven't seen you in fifteen years." Navi smiled. "At least Sempai didn't send anyone with a mouth on them. Let's go."

They left the bar and stood on the main road. Kurenai looked at her, "do you mind if we take the direct route through the forest?"

"Fine by me, as long as I get some food in my stomach soon." Navi said and suddenly appeared on the tree. "Come on, I'll tell you guys some war stories as we go."

* * *

"Sai, that's three beach balls you've popped." Naruto complained looking over at him. "Don't you know anything about hitting a beach ball?"

"No." Naruto picked up there last one and hit it over at him. Sai was quick and caught it with one hand.

"Toss it up into the air and hit it back to me!" Naruto complained. Sakura had been attempting to teach Sai how to play volleyball with a beach ball but she quit to go play volleyball with some other girls that were on the beach.

"Alright." Sai threw it in the air and hit it, it exploded. "Opps, sorry Naruto-kun. Perhaps I was hitting it to hard."

"Whatever!"

"Hey look at that ship!" Someone yelled down the shore, Sai and Naruto turned to see a small ship on fire closing in on the shore.

"Sai, come on!" Naruto yelled and rushed out onto the water.

"Naruto, we are on vacation. Didn't the hokage-sama…"

"Screw the old lady, someone could burn to death!" Naruto ignored Sai and charge foreword making a quick clone of himself before jumping on the ship. There was no one on the deck. "Hey, the door's open to below!" The clone said running towards it. "There's people in here!"

The Narutos quickly got everyone on the deck. "You take one, I'll make more clones." The clone grabbed a little girl and raced towards the shore. After a moment a few dozen clones stood on deck. "Grab someone and get to shore!"

"YES!" Soon everyone was being carried off by one or two clone and safely to shore.

"Who's injured?" Sakura said rushing over when she saw what was going on. One of the clones brought over and elderly woman with a giant burn on her arm. "Set her down. Bring me the injured!" The clone sat the injured down one by one and disappeared. Sakura put her hand over the woman's arm and began healing her.

"Sakura-chan, do you need any help?" Naruto asked.

"In my room there's a medical kit on the dresser, go get it for me." She said moving on to the next one, a small boy with a cut on his head. "You're going to be fine." She put her hand onto the boy's forehead and the cut healed instantly, "see?" She smiled and he smiled back. "Sai! Go into the resort and tell them there was a huge boating accident. Get the hospital with ambulances."

"Yes, Sakura-chan." Sai was gone and Sakura moved on to the next person a little girl that was unconscious. She laid her head down on her chest, she was still breathing. She checked her over quickly and found she had smoke in her lungs. Sakura ran to the ocean and picked up a bubble of water with her chakra and forced it into the girl and pulled it out a second later with thick black streaks in it. The girl began breathing more easily and Sakura moved on.

Naruto finally decided to break in and found the kit on the dresser and grabbed it. He noticed something familiar, the original picture of team seven. 'Sakura brought this with her?'

Naruto quickly went back out the window and jumped down the with medical kit. He handed it to Sakura and she set it down. "Naruto, what blood type are you?"

"Uh, B positive I think." She grabbed his arm and grabbed her bag pulling out a needle.

"I'm borrowing a bit of your blood okay?" She put the needle in quickly and sucked on the end of the attached hose to get it moving. Moving quickly she put a needle on the other end and stuck it in an elderly man. "Stay here for a minute, if either area starts bleeding apply pressure Naruto."

She ran over to a woman and sat down beside her, "Mam, you're going to need to hold still, okay?" She held out her hand and small spike of chakra appear with a string. It moved quickly in and out of a wound on the woman's leg sowing it up. The spike disappeared; Sakura placed her hand over the sown area and was able to heal the wound. Sakura looked up, "Naruto, pressure!"

Naruto looked down at his arm and pressed down, it had started bleeding. She walked over and checked the man's pulse. She pulled the needle out and healed the hole then did the same with Naruto.

Several ambulances arrived at the beach, paramedics rushed over with gurney. "Quick, get the children first!"

"No!" Sakura said, "the children can go last, they've been treated, that man and woman down there have severe damage to their spines, them first!" She went over to the next person, healed their hand quickly and moved on. The paramedics followed her orders quickly after they saw what she was doing.

"Wow, I've never seen a medical ninja work so fast before." One of the paramedics said moving the severely injured man carefully onto a gurney. Naruto looked over at Sakura and smiled.

* * *

"Minato was so annoying, seriously, when we were growing up he used to carry this frog around with him and call it Nazu. He spent days and days with it until it died. He bawled for like a week straight." Navi said laughing.

"Navi-sama, please don't make fun of the fouth." Kurenai asked. "He was a hokage after all."

"So, Tsunade's a Hokage and I called her old bat and you didn't take offense. So anyway, when we were 24 the great ninja war started and the first thing he did was spend all his time flashing everywhere killing the enemy. He was such a show off because that one chick showed up. I know they were supposed to get married but I think they both might have died before then."

"Navi-sama, you are breaking Kohona law by discussing this! Shut your mouth or I'll do it for you!" Kurenai snapped.

Navi was taken a back for a second, "so… I guess I really have missed a lot, Kurenai-chan. You grew up." Kurenai looked down and new that her team was staring at her for yelling.

"Oh, Navi-sama, Hokage-sama sent you this letter." Hinata said handing it to her. Navi read threw it quickly and put it away.

* * *

"Well, if it isn't Kohona!" Temari said landing on a branch next to Hinata.

"Hello Temari-san." Hinata said. "Who's that riding on your back?"

Temari looked behind her and smiled, "This is Matsuri, she's one of Gaara's pupils. Couldn't handle moving for two days straight through so I had to carry her." They landed at the Kohona gates and walked through.

"Oh god, it's you again." Shikamaru said landing to the right of them with Iruka, Guy and Neji.

"Yep, I'm back to terrorize you." Temari joked. "One of you, take her off my back, she's none too light." Iruka came up and took Matsuri into his arms. "Thanks, so, is the Hokage up?"

"It's three P.M, of course she's up, it's just if she's happy or not." Kiba replied and headed into the village. Shino and Hinata followed him.

"Come on Temari, let's go." Shikamaru said.

"Just put Matsuri somewhere where she won't get into any trouble." Temari said and caught up with Shikamaru into the village.

"Come on Navi." Kurenai said walking angrily into the village. Navi followed and shrugged her shoulders. Neji and Guy were already gone by the time Iruka turned around. "Oh well…" He headed into town and set her down at the closest bench and walked away.

* * *

Sakura stood up and walked over to sit down by Naruto and Sai. "This isn't how a vacation is supposed to go."

"Were ninja, everything is different Sakura-chan. We walk on water, kill people and die for our country. How many people do that every day?" Naruto said with a smile. "It's our job, right? I mean we could have gone to a normal school, be attending high school right now, but we're on a beach after we saved about forty people."

"I guess when you put it that way…" Sakura said. "I'm exhausted, I think I'm going to bed." She stood up and took a step before she collapsed on the sand.

"Sakura!" Naruto said, he and Sai ran over next to her. She was asleep.

"It take's a lot of chakra to heal all those people." Sai commented.

"I'll take her up to her room." Naruto said and picked her up. "Sai can you grab her medical kit?"

He nodded and went to get it while Naruto drudged across the sand. Naruto began walking up the wall to her room and jumped on the balcony. Sai jumped up and opened the door. "Thanks." Naruto maneuvered in without hitting Sakura against anything and set her down on her pallet. Sai set the medical kit on the table.

Naruto closed the door to the balcony and walked out of the room behind Sai. "See you later."

Sai nodded and they went to their separate rooms. Naruto opened the door to find Kakashi sitting on his bed reading, halfway through the manuscript. "Kaki-Sensai, shouldn't you be getting back to Kohona?"

Kakashi looked up, "Probably. I completely lost track of time. Later." Kakashi poofed and Naruto headed into the bathroom.

* * *

"Alright, thank you." Tsunade said taking the letter from Temari.

"Also, Hokage-sama, I have a letter for Naruto Uzumaki, is he here?"

"He's on vacation. If you want, I'm sure you could make it there and back in a couple of hours."

"That'd probably be best." She said. Tsunade pulled out a brochure.

"Shikamaru, you'll go with her." He took the brochure and they disappeared.

"Bout time, they were done talking." Navi said walking in to sit on the edge of the desk. "Sempai, you haven't change in the least bit."

"Navi, you've grown out of you're clothes." Tsunade said.

"You're just upset because you've never been skinny." Navi said. "So, what's the big emergency?"

"Navi, you know what you've been doing." Tsunade said coldly. "I'm just going to warn you to stop, Fire country will not accept your behavior." She handed her a paper, "You've stopped reporting thirteen years ago for work and decided to start conning people out of money. Say something! Navi I didn't teach you this!"

"Tsunade, did you ever really see me as a ninja?" Navi said looking over at her. "I wrote a letter to the third saying I couldn't handle the work anymore. Listen Sempai, I'll work for the village, but I won't kill anyone, I just work enough to support myself. I'm not a bad person."

"Fine, but listen to me, you better get your act together or I will come after you." Tsunade growled. "Report back here once a month alright?"

"Fine." Navi disappeared out the window.

* * *

"What?" Shikamaru said landing on the front porch of the resort. "It's not that I'm upset to see you it's just that people get tired of seeing each other easily."

"So," Temari said landing next to him, "you're tired of seeing me?"

"You're making me out to look like a bad guy."

"You'll get over it." She said and walked into the lobby up to the front desk. "Hi, were hear to see Naruto Uzumaki, what room is he in?"

"I'm sorry, I can't disclose room numbers, but I can call up to him really quick." She said and picked up the phone. "Hi, this is the front desk, you have visitors. What are your names?"

"Shikamaru and Temari." Shikamaru said shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Okay, buh-bye. You can go up, it's room 414. Just take that elevator to your right." She said pointing.

"Thanks." Temari smiled. They made their way to the elevator and leaned against the back of it, Shikamaru pressing the 4 button.

"So why do you want me to look like the bad guy?"

"I'm not making you look like the bad guy, you are. Why can't you just say 'hi' or nod, not 'oh god, not you.'"

"Well why does it bother you?"

"Because it's mean." She crossed her arms. "And it makes it look like you hate me."

"So that's it, you think I hate you."

"Well you act like that."

"I always act like that." Shikamaru walked out and looked at the numbers and walked over to 414 and knocked.

"Come in." Shikamaru opened the door to find Naruto surrounded by small letters.

"Wow, you get a lot of mail." Temari said stepping in. "Who's it's all from?"

"Minato Kamikaze, most to Jiraiya, some from this one chick to Jiraiya, but mainly the fourth Hokage." Naruto said.

"Have you read any?" Shikamaru asked. Naruto shook his head.

"Here," Temari pulled out the letter, "from Gaara." Naruto took the letter and set it down.

"I'll get to it later." Naruto said. "If you'll still be in Kohona in a week I'll give you a letter to send back, if not, I'll get a messenger ninja."

"Okay." Temari said. Naruto grabbed more letters and placed them out on the floor. "You're really absorbed into this."

"I grew up with the fourth as my hero, it's kind of like he's here with me." Naruto said smiling up at her. "Did you guys want to stay, we have unlimited access to the spa?"

"Sure." "No." Temari hit Shikamaru oh the head. "Spa sounds great."

"Tsunade-sama was expecting us back tonight." Shikamaru said. "We'll have to take a rain check, Naruto."

"Okay, well have fun on the way back."

They nodded and walked out the door closing it behind it. "maybe you should stop acting like that."

"I can't help it." Shikamaru said hitting the button for the elevator. "If you have to know I don't hate you."

"Really?" Temari said leaning back in the elevator.

"Yeah, why's it so important to you."

Temari shrugged. "No reason."


	4. Chapter Four

"Three AM! This is ridiculous!" Chouji said looking over at all the other ninja gathered in front of the Hokage's offices. "I haven't had a chance to have my snack yet!"

"Chouji, calm down, it's got to be important." Shikamaru said looking over at everyone. He quickly ran his hand threw his hair. "Most of us here are still in our pajamas, and look, Kakashi's sleeping."

"That's because Guy-Sensai just went and got him without waking him up." Tenten said sitting against a tree.

"Attention!" Tsunade said stepping out of the office and making her way down the stairs. "This morning we will be going through… Kakashi, wake up!" He turned his head up off Guy's shoulder and looked up smiling and waved his hand. "As I was saying, this morning we will be going through a tough inspection!"

There were groans and suddenly she started laughing. "Just kidding!"

"Tsunade-sama, you can't wake everyone up at three AM to play pranks!" Shizune screamed at her. She was still in her bright pink pajamas and quite dazed. "You're not drunk again are you?!"

"Hey, watch it, I'm you're Hokage! Anyway, actually, I've assembled you here because were doing a drawing, everyone who has a blue slip will go to the resort with the rest of team Kakashi and find out why ships are being attacked and bombed. The ones with white slips will be heading out on regular missions. Okay! Draw!" Tsunade said pulling out a hat.

"Tsunade-sama, why didn't you just do assignments?" Shizune asked still thinking Tsunade was drunk.

"Personally," Tsunade said leaning over to her. "The rest of the missions I have are D-Rank so I decided to do a lottery to see who gets the B-Ranked one."

"Hokage-sama! What would you like me to do?" Temari said stepping foreword and bowing.

"Temari, I guess you are under my jurisdiction. You may go ahead with Kakashi's team." She nodded and stepped back. "Okay line up!"

After a few minutes everyone had a piece of paper, "so, joining Kakashi, Temari and Yamato will be… Raise your hands if you have a blue slip!" Tsunade looked over the crowd and smiled, "Hyuuga Neji, Hyuuga Hinata, Nara Shikamaru, and Inuzuka Kiba. Be back here in fifteen for a briefing, the rest of you are dismissed until later in the day."

Neji and Hinata jumped into the tree closest and took off. Hinata looked over at Neji and turned back to the path ahead, "Neji, don't you think Naruto and Sakura should be able to handle this?"

"No, Sakura has probably had to spend her time healing the wounded and Naruto and Sai have probably been aiding her. Sounds like random bombing by the Hokage's description." Neji jumped down and ran into the house Hinata following, they went their separate ways into their rooms and Hinata grabbed a small bag and shoved a spare thing of clothes in it along with some packets dried food and ran out forgetting to get dressed.

She ran back in and through off her pajamas and put her pants and shirt on and grabbed her jacket. She ran outside to see Neji walking by with tea. "Why have thirteen more minutes Hinata, you should have breakfast."

"Oh, I suppose your right." She said and set her coat and bag down and wandered into the kitchen.

* * *

"Sakura…" Naruto whispered quietly. "Sakura-chan. Please wake up."

"Um, what," she said sitting up and glaring at him, her eyes glazed over. "It's not even light out." She said in her bright pink tank top and boxer set. Her eyes cleared and she saw he was fully dressed with Sai and Kakashi behind him. "What's going on?"

"Well, you have to disobey an earlier order, but there are some people you need to heal on the beach. Someone's been hijacking ships." Kakashi said walking over to the porch. He stood there feeling the cool breeze threw his mask until he leapt across the room. Guy and lee landed on the floor next to her.

"Who's ready to WIN!" Guy said making another one of his famous poses.

Lee looked down at the half awake Sakura. "Um…" 'Sakura-chan… in her pajamas…'

Sakura stood up, grabbed her head band and the nearest bathrobe and looked over to her team leader after collecting herself. "I'm ready."

"Alright. Boys come on." Kakashi said and they were about to move but Sakura interjected.

"Kaki-Sensai!" They stopped and looked at her. "I need Naruto. I mean, I'll need his chakra." She quickly corrected herself.

"That's right, you don't have that much, Sakura. Naruto, follow Sakura's orders." Kakashi, Guy and Lee were gone. Lee was upset, wishing he had been chosen but remembered he didn't have any chakra. "Guy, what's the information on the attacks."

"All the ships being attacked, are coming from the wave country. They may be boarding there, but they're only attacking here."

"So, we just gotta wait around for a ship I guess." Kakashi said stopping on the wave seeing a dark mass approaching. "So, how many ships have been lost."

"7, three more this morning."

* * *

"Sai, why didn't you go?" Sakura said grabbing her healing kit.

"I want to help."

"Do you know anything about healing?"

"No."

"Then, I don't know…"

"Explosion!" Naruto yelled pointing out to see. "It's the fourth one today!" He jumped out the window and all Sakura and Sai could hear was dozens upon dozens of poof-ing noises.

"SAI! Go help Naruto!" Sakura yelled. She herself jumped from the window and created a shadow clone and they rushed down to the shore.

* * *

"Neji! Over here!" Hinata screamed running towards the third wreak of the morning.

He turned and saw the people lying in there. "I see them." They jumped down into the smoke-y area and grabbed the people, Neji carrying 3 people and Hinata carrying two children. "Hurry!"

The ran quickly across the cresting waves and found themselves soon at the beach. Hinata stopped for a second and looked across seeing a wave of Naruto running out so sea a little ways away. She quickly turned back to running.

"Here!" Sakura said and Neji and Hinata quickly began laying them down. Hinata was shocked when she came on shore to find two Sakura's working side by side, one healing and one comforting the conscious. "It's going to be alright, just apply pressure."

Hinata laid the children down and Sakura went right to them feeling for pulse. She pulled her hand away slowly. "Hinata, I need to borrow some of you chakra."

"Um okay." She said and knelt down. Hinata placed her hand out and Sakura quickly placed it on the child's chest and he was quickly surrounded in a mass of light. The child popped back to life. Sakura moved on to the next child and felt for pulse and healed a large wound in the leg.

"Hinata! Go get more people!" Sakura snapped at her. Hinata stopped staring at the child and began to run back to sea as dozens of Naruto rushed passed with injured people. She stopped and a Naruto stopped. "Hinata, we can find anymore. Can you go out to the ship and use Baykugan?"

"Sure!"

"Were coming." Some Naruto said rushing up with five more behind him. "Lead the way, Hinata." Hinata fainted and Neji rushed over. "Hinata, are you okay."

"Naruto, come on, I'll lead!" Neji said and they rushed out quickly.

A Naruto picked up Hinata and moved her over away from the injured. A Saukra looked over. "You over dosed her…"

"What?"

"Never mind. Collect you're unused you, I need as much Chakra as possible." She said and went to sit down by and old man, she checked his pulse and moved on quickly to the next. "Naruto, will you move the corpse?"

"Yeah." He said grimly and pulled the body away to turn to a Sakura who was motioning him foreword. He held out his hand and Sakura placed hers on to and a bright glow was fixated above the body. The chest began to move more lively.

Sakura grasped Naruto's hand and moved it over the next body and the same thing happened.

* * *

"Yeah…" Tsunade said taking a drink of the Sake. The door opened up and Navi walked in. "Oh… you…"

"Yeah, yeah. So, heard about the ships, I'm going to go help."

"I thought you weren't a ninja anymore." Tsunade said sharply.

"Sempai, I won't kill any more, healing however, is a strength, I'll be there in about twenty minutes, do you have a message for anyone?"

"Yes," Tsunade shuffled through her desk and pulled out a scroll. "Give this to Sakura Haruno, she'll know what to do."

"Oh, you're new little pet? I heard Shizune is jealous of her. Oh well, later." Navi said disappearing. Tsunade bit her lip and poured more Sake into her cup.

* * *

"Temari, behind you!" Shikamaru said holding his shadow. They were on a ship approaching the fire country. It took Shikamaru two minutes to find three bombers who happened to be ninjas. Temari turned and blocked a punch with the edge of her fan.

"Nice try." She blew him way out into the water. They suddenly heard barking and Kiba landed next to Temari with one of the bombers all tied up. "Oh, we were supposed to capture, I'm pretty sure I killed him."

"We only need one of them." Shikamaru said and he watched the shadowy area climb up the man's body.

* * *

"Tsunade-sama, it's still only five AM! Please stop drinking!" Shizune said walking in with a boat load of papers. "You've got plenty of work today, 16 new missions were inquired about just in the past fifteen minutes."

"I should have went with them…" Tsunade muttered and took another drink.

"To help the effort?"

"No, vacation." She set down the cup and shoved it out of the way. Shizune set the papers down and the Hokage started going through them. "I want you to go help in healing, Navi just went, so I presume it's going to be too much work for just Sakura to handle."

"Alright." Shizune disappeared leaving Tsunade to keep reading.

"Ah… If Jiraiya was here… I wouldn't be working right now…"

* * *

"Last one of this row." Sakura said, she turned to Naruto and was still amazed at his amount of chakra. She checked the pulse and healed a bit on her own.

"HEY!" They turned to see a strange woman in revealing clothes. "Who's Sakura Haruno?"

Sakura stood up and she walked over and placed the scrolled in front of her. "A gift from Tsunade-sempai. I'm Navi." Navi walked over to a man in agony and healed him by holding out her hand and sending her chakra at him.

"Another healer?' Naruto asked. Sakura opened the scrolled and released it. Suddenly a field was set up around them. Navi stopped and looked around. "A healing field? I haven't seen one of these since the great ninja war."

"Healing field?" Naruto said following Sakura to the next row where she began healing people. "What is it?"

"It feeds chakra into the bodies of whoever's inside." She said. "Makes it easier to heal." She kept going until she found someone with shrapnel in their chest. It was a young woman Sakura grabbed Naruto and she began healing. "Slowly pull it out."

Naruto grabbed it and tugged slowly, it was in there good. He kept going getting it little by little. "Pull it out." She said and Naruto ripped it from her body. The girl screamed and Naruto put in his share of chakra and soon the wound was much better.

"I'll finish her, there's another like her over there." Navi said walking up and letting her chakra stretch over them.

* * *

"So, you sure you're the last one?" Kakashi asked. He had the bomber Kiba caught in a Genjutsus slowly torturing the answers out of him. "If you're lying I'll have to take another finger."

"I'M NOT! IT'S THE TRUTH!" He screamed through giant sobs. He thought that he had three fingers severed already. "PLEASE! LET ME GO!

"And no country was involved?"

"NO! WE WE'RE DOING IT TO BUILD OUR REPUTATION!" The man cried. "PLEASE! NO MORE!" Kakashi released the Jutsus and the man fell onto the sand. "Huh?"

"Navi," she stepped foreword and looked at him.

"What do you want eye-boy?"

"Can you take him back to Tsunade? You are the fastest?"

"I guess, they have over priced Sake here anyway." She grabbed him and disappeared.

"Hey, Hinata! HINATA!" Kiba yelled. Hinata opened her eyes to see Kiba and Temari over her with Akahamaru at her side. "You fainted again."

"Wait, you do this often?" Temari asked giving her a hand up.

"I don't mean to." Hinata rubbed her forehead slightly and looked around. Everywhere she looked she couldn't see Naruto, than it hit her that she couldn't find Sakura or Sai either.

Kakashi walked over. "Oh, you are doing better?"

"Yes."

"That's good. If you guys need to rest, the hotel has empty rooms they're giving us to borrow since no one want to come near exploding ships."

"That's probably be best." Kiba said. "Come on, maybe Sakura has something to get you out of that daze." Hinata followed Kiba and Temari back to the hotel. "Hey Temari, where's Shikamaru?"

"He's reporting to the Hokage." Temari said a little bit confused. "Why?"

"Well I just figured…"

"Figured what?" Temari picked Kiba up by the collar of his jacket and looked at him. "well?"

"Nothing."

"Good!" Temari pressed the button and the elevator opened and they looked inside to see some blood on the walls. "Huh?"

They got inside not touching anything and Temari took them up to the floor with Naruto's room. She knocked and didn't hear anything. "Well he's not there."

A door opened down the hall and Sai walked out. He looked at them and smiled. "Hello."

"Hello." Temari replied. "We're looking for Sakura."

"Oh, it's that door." He pointed to the door left of Naruto's. "I think Naruto's helping her put bandages on right now, when he brought her in she was bleeding a lot."

Temari went to the door and opened it. Naruto was sitting next to Sakura wrapping her hands. She was almost past out and crying silently. Naruto didn't look to happy either and continued to wrap. "What?"

He said distantly. Temari looked down at them in surprise and knelt down next to Sakura. "Are you alright?"

"Thirty-four." She said and began to cry more. Naruto finished and handed her the box of tissues that was on the floor. "We had to bury thirty-four children."

"I see." Temari looked down. "Get some rest Sakura." She looked up at Temari's face and saw the small cut. She raised her hand and healed it. The bandages became soaked in blood. Sakura turned away to Naruto.

"I'm sorry, I think it needs re-wrapped."

"Don't cry Saukra-chan." He said quietly and began to undo his work.

Hinata stood with Kiba in the background of all this, looking taking in the moment. Hinata finally entered the room. "Sakura, I know a bit, can I try and heal you."

"Hinata…" She said looking at her, she smiled a bit. "Thank you."

Hinata placed her hand above Sakura's and a very dim light emerged. The glow stopped. "I'm sorry, that's all I can do."

"It's the thought that counts." Temari said. "Come on, let her rest." She stood up and watched as Naruto finished again. "Come on, Naruto."

"No, I'm going to stay with her." He said quietly and went into the bathroom. They hear the sink turn on and off quickly. He came back out with a wet hand towel. "Lay back."

Sakura did and Naruto placed the cloth on her forehead. Sakura looked over at him with a very familiar smile. Temari smiled as well, "I can't argue with that. If you two need anything, you know where to find us."

She shoved them out and closed the door. Kiba and Hinata followed her to the elevator. "Hey Temari." Kiba said walking inside with Hinata. "What can't you argue with?"

"Isn't it obvious?" She said smiling. They looked at her dumbfounded. "You two obviously don't know?"

"Uh…." Hinata said, but all that came to her thoughts were a banana. "No."

"You two are either still too young or way too blind." Temari said. They landed on the floor and Temari walked up to the main desk and inquired about a room so Hinata could lay down and the tiny girls asked if she could wait a minute. Temari turned back to them. "You're serious, and to think, Kiba was about to suggest it between Shika and I."

"Wait but didn't Sakura…" Kiba turned to Hinata and plugged her ears. "They're dating?"

"No, but in love. And Kiba, I think she can read lips." Temari said and she pushed Kiba off her, Hinata was about to cry.


	5. Chapter Five

"So, why can't you heal your own hands

"So, why can't you heal your own hands?" Naruto asked quietly watching Sakura lay there. He knew the answer, it was because she used so much chakra that if she attempted, she hurt herself just as much as she healed.

Sakura was quiet for a second and began to talk in a soft whisper. "I'm out of chakra. We can't all have a huge source to back us up." She said, she tried to smile but it didn't get very far, she ended up with a slight elevation.

The noise ended when Naruto's stomach rumbled. He looked down at it, "oh, I haven't eaten all day."

"We spent since way early in the morning on the beach. It's got to be at least four. Why don't you get something to eat?" She said, her breath was little and made it sound like she was gasping.

"I'll bring you back some dinner." Naruto said standing up. Sakura watched him as he closed the door behind him and shut her eyes.

"Sakura-chan, please wake up." Sakura opened her eyes to see Naruto and Sai hovering above her.

"We brought you Miso Soup and some Kabocha Soup." Sai said setting the bowls down next to her. He had on that fake smile again. Usually Sakura would have been upset, but she ignored it.

"Thank you." She pulled the cloth off her head and sat up. "Aren't you guys going to eat?"

"We grabbed a quick bite downstairs." Sakura nodded to Naruto's words and grabbed the Miso with both hands. She drank the broth ignoring the rest of the ingredients.

"Are you feeling any better?" Sai asked. The boys sat there quietly while Sakura drank the entire broth. She set the bowl down and picked up the Kabocha and did the same. Finally setting down the bowls she turned to them and smiled.

"Yeah, I'm just really hungry."

"An appetite is healthy." Sai commented. There was a knock at the door.

"Come in." Sakura grabbed the chopsticks and the left over ingredients of the Miso Soup. The door opened up and Kakashi and Yamato entered the room.

"Ah, so you're feeling better?" Kakashi said. "Well, at least you three still have two nights to enjoy yourself."

"I guess so," Sakura said looking at her hands.

Kakashi squatted down and looked over the wrappings. "Naruto, you need to learn how to wrap better."

"I'm not a medical ninja!" Naruto said in his defense.

"Alright, we better be going, Kakashi-Sempai." Yamato said. "We have reports to fill out."

"Right now, Iruka should be giving mine."

"That's not fair." Yamato whispered.

Kakashi stretched standing back up. "Oh, and Hinata's down in 213, she fainted again. Kiba's around here somewhere too. Later." Kakashi and Yamato poofed, leaving the door open.

"I should probably get going as well. I want to pain the sunset from on top of the hotel." Sai said. "I hope you get better, Sakura-san."

"Thanks Sai."

"Well then." Sai poofed as well.

Sakura turned her attention to Naruto. "Well?"

"Huh?"

"Don't you have anything better to do than watch me eat?" She said dipping the chopsticks in the bowl and picking out random food.

"Um…" Naruto though for a second and scratched his head. "Not really. All I have to do is go through all those letters from the fourth."

Sakura stopped and swallowed what she was chewing. "What?"

"Yeah," Naruto said getting up to close the door. "Tsunade gave them to me. Jiraiya left them there." He came back and sat down. He stopped and his eyes opened wide. "I STILL HAVE TO WRITE BACK TO GAARA! Excuse me; I'll be back in a little bit." Naruto said rushing out the door closing it behind him and going into his room grabbing the thick envelope and opening it.

'Naruto, I'm looking foreword to see how far you've really come during the chunin exams. I heard from Kankuro and Temari about what you're able to do, and from what I hear the chunin exams will be well worth watching. Gaara.'

"Hum, that was short." Nartuo flipped the page and found more writing.

'Hey Naruto. I think Gaara's letter is a little bland so I stuck mine in here too. Anyway, we're having a festival in a couple of weeks where we have taijutsus battles and best of this and that contests, thought you'd want to come and show off with all your little clones. And Rock Lee's invited too, I'd like to see him go up against Gaara's little puppy, Matsuri. She's as hard head as you are but way faster. Anyway, I'll probably end up seeing you later. I'm sending the festival program and a couple of tickets to get in. Kankuro.'

"Sweet!" Naruto tossed the letters on the floor and looked at the cover of the festival program with two tickets taped to the front. Naruto picked off a ticket and read it. "All access pass to include room and dining for Naruto Uzumaki plus one. AWESOME!"

"STOP YELLING NARUTO!" Sakura yelled through the wall.

Naruto got up grabbing the program and the tickets and raced over to Sakura's room. "Sakura, look what Kankuro sent me!"

Sakura grabbed it out of his hand while stepping out of the bathroom. "Huh, I didn't know they had a festival." She opened it and began reading, "look they have a traditional dress day, and a color day. They even have something for you, look."

She held it out and pointed to a part of the page. "A ramen eating contest? I'd be awesome at that."

"I know, I've seen you eat." She said blandly. She handed it back and waited for a minute and then hit him upside the head. "You idiot."

"What, I didn't know I was doing anything wrong." Naruto said shrinking away.

"Well…"

"Um…" Naruto embarrassed by not knowing what he was doing began laughing.

"You really are an idiot. Are you going to invite me or not?" She said handing back the program.

Naruto was a bit stunned by this and then smiled. "Alright."

"So when is this thing?" She said heading back into the bathroom. The sink turned on and she came back out a second later brushing her teeth.

"Um…" Naruto kept looing over the program then finally looked on the ticket. "It's in a couple of weeks."

Sakura went back in and spit into the sink, rinsed off her toothbrush and came back out, "just enough time to clear the time out with Tsunade-sama. Well, what are we going to do now?"

"Do you want to go through the letter's, I've tried to read some, but the writings fading." Naruto said. "I can bring the box over if you give me a second."

"Naw, come on we'll just go over there, save the trip." She said. Sakura dumped the bathrobe and walked out the door shutting it. "We should probably go and see if Hinata's alright."

"Alright, what room number was it again?" Naruto took the tickets and gave on to Sakura and shove the other in his pocket.

"Um… I think Kaki-Sensai said it was 213. I wonder why she fainted again?"

"Well why does she normally faint?" Naruto asked, Sakura didn't answer and went and pressed the down button on the elevator.

"Poor girl needs to find a hobby, if you ask me. Maybe I can get her and Ino to hang out." Sakura said talking to herself now. The elevator opened and they got in. "So, I guess I was really bleeding badly when you brought me in, eh?"

"Yeah, guess they haven't had a chance to clean yet." Sakura pressed two. "you think they'd have camera's in the elevator…"

"Why?"

"Haven't you heard the stories about what people do on elevators?" Naruto immediately closed him mouth tight. 'I can't believe I was about to tell Sakura that people have sex on elevators…'

Sakura crossed her arms and looked at him. "And what do people do on elevators?"

"Um… They steal, you'd be surprised! The elevator gets crowded and a pick pockets gets in and steals everything away!" 'Alright! That was a great lie!'

"Eh, people do that anyway." She said shrugging the elevator opened. "Eh, this way." Sakura got out and Naruto followed her to a door with gold 213 on it. Sakura knocked and there was a shuffle inside and Kiba opened the door. "Hi Kiba, is Sakura in?"

"Yeah," he said stepping aside; Hinata was sitting on the bed brushing out Akahamaru. "Oy, Hinata, Sakura and Naruto came to see you."

"Hi Hinata, are you feeling better?"

"Yes, how are you hands?" She said quietly setting the brush down and patting Akahamaru on the head.

"Better, they still hurt a lot though." She said and sat down on the bed and patted the giant dog too. "So, I heard you fainted again, you should probably get that checked out. It might be anemia."

"Huh? Anemia?" she said looking up.

"It's where you don't have enough iron, they faint a lot. Might just be that simple." Sakura said smiling. "If you're staying the night, tomorrow I can test you for it and maybe we can go shopping."

"Oh, you should see what I bought with Kurenai-Sempai." Hinata said digging into her pockets. She pulled out a tiny gold locket. "I haven't decided what to put inside it."

While the girls were talking Kiba and Naruto watched in the corner whispering to each other. "Hey Naruto, how long do you think they'll talk?"

"I've never actually seen two girls finish a conversation…"

"Seriously, I think that… Oh shit!" Kurenai grabbed her stomach with one hand and clutched the counter with the other.

"Kurenai! What's wrong?" Shikamaru said getting up from the table and running over to her.

"I don't know."

"Come on, I'm taking you to the hospital." Shikamaru said and picked her up. "I don't think that's normal."

"No, really." She grunted. Shikamaru carried her out the window and jumped across the roof tops to the hospital. Shikamaru jumped down infront of the doors and rushed them, they opened and he went to the emergency nurse.

"Something's wrong, she's not doing well."

"I think I pissed off the baby." Kurenai said to the nurse. The nurse brought a wheelchair around and Kurenai was set in it. She was whirled out of sight and Shikamaru sat down in the emergency room and pulled out a cigarette.

.e corner whispering to each other. .

"Hey Naruto, bring over the program. I want to show Hinata about the festival."

"Festival?" Hinata asked.

"Yeah, in **Sunagakure." She said as Naruto sat down next to her and gave it to her. "Look, they've got theme days!"** **Sakura flipped the book around and showed her. "Wow, I wish I was going."** "**I can ask Kankuro for more tickets if you want to go." Naruto said.** **Hinata smiled up at him. "That'd be nice."** "**Yeah, he only sent two, but they're all acess passes." Naruto said trying to remember what he did with his. Sakura rolled her eyes and pulled hers out. ** "**I can't wait for the traditional day, I have a new green kimono I haven't worn yet." She handed Hinata her pass. "Naruto's going to take me."** "**Oh, how nice of you Naruto-kun." Hinata said slowly writhing. She looked at the ticket and quickly handed it back. ** "**Not really, I've tried to take her on so many dates you'd think she hated me." Naruto said smiling. ** "**No, I just expect that when you ask me that you're offering to pay." She said turning towards him. "Got it?"** "**Well, I have money now since Jiraiya-sama's not taking all my money." Naruto kind of looked down. "If he was here, we'd all be sitting outside a brothel yelling for him to hurry up."** "**Or that time he took both our money and went to the whore house only to be jump by all those people."** "**I remember that!" Naruto said happily. "I miss the old pervert."** "**Yo, Sakura, can I talk to you outside?" Kiba interrupted them. ** "**Sure," Sakura said and got up to follow him out in the hall. Kiba closed the door and looked at her angrily. "What are you doing? You know Hinata likes him!"** "**I know that, but… I can't help it." Sakura said looking down at the ground, she rest her thoughts on the floor for a minute then smiled and looked back up at him. "I have a thing for dumb blondes."** "**You're serious? You actually like him back?" Kiba said in amazement.** "**When I think on it, I liked Sasuke because everyone else did, but Naruto, he's actually honest and sweet. I guess I do love him back."** "**Than just take it easier around Hinata." Suddenly Naruto burst though the door, "hey, Hinata fainted again, but she started crying first. Um, Kiba, what do you do in this situation."** **Kiba pulled him out of the room, "why don't you two go out or something." Kiba said slamming the door shut. ** "**What'd I say?" Naruto asked looking at Sakura.** "**Depends what you said to Hinata." Suddenly Naruto blushed and got a huge grin on his face. Sakura slapped him upside the head and he flew down to the floor. "You idiot what did you say."** "**This is something I'll keep to myself, no matter how hard you hit me." Naruto said smiling back over at her as he stood up. "It's not like it was anything to make her faint."** "**It might have been." Sakura said flat out. "I can't believe you've been this blind for so long. Do you see at all?"** "**Yeah, I have 20/20 vision." Sakura flung out her hand. Naruto covered his face but she swished his hair around. ** "**That's silly." She said with a smile. She grabbed his upper arm and pulled him down the hall. "I'm going to say something and no matter what, do not tell anyone I said it, and never speak of the topic again, alright?"** "**Yeah, sure… I guess."** "**Hinata… has a crush on you." Sakura said. Naruto brushed his hands threw his hair, "so I guess I did make her faint and cry." **


	6. Chapter 6

"Tsunade-Sempai… May I ask what you're doing

"Tsunade-Sempai… May I ask what you're doing?" Navi said landing on one of the window sills. She sat one and swung her leg back and forth. "Or is it for Hokage's eyes only?"

"Actually, it's something you might be able to help me on." Tsunade said handing the folder back to her. "It's the interrogations of the man you brought back. He says he from a new group called Lysion."

"I've heard of it." Navi said handing it back. "Lysion is a new terrorist organization trying to make its own ninja village. Thing is, there's not really a ninja among them."

"So little threat now?" Tsunade said pouring her Sake.

Navi smiled, "I didn't say that. They're nearly a thousand members strong." Tsunade handed Navi the Sake. "Thank you."

"One mission a month, infiltrate their ranks and get me more information." Tsunade said. Navi stood up and set the Sake glass down on the desk.

"Alright, as long as I don't kill anyone." Tsunade nodded. Navi waved and disappeared in a whirl of leaves. Tsunade took her glass back and poured another drink.

* * *

There was bright light pouring down on Naruto's face when he woke up. He wasn't happy in the least bit considering with Sakura everything was going right and then he's hurting Hinata. He decided to drowned everything from his mind and threw on a clean pair of pants and a shirt, grabbed his money pouch and a few of the letter from Minato and head out to breakfast.

He locked the door to his room and strolled down the hall to the elevator and pressed down. The doors opened after a little bit and an elderly couple got out and walked by, smiling. Naruto took a large breath and stepped in the elevator. He pressed 1 and was soon lowered to the lobby. He walked out, grabbed his shoes from the cubby and went into town. He didn't know exactly what time it was, but the streets were deserted, and barely have the shops and restaurants open. He found a small grill and went inside.

A perky young waitress approached him. "Hi, table for one?"

"Yes, please."

"Alright, this way." She moved across the restaurant and held a hand out to a small table by the window. "Here's your menu. Just a few things, recently we've had a lot of accidents with children burning themselves so you have to order to have the grill brought out here, no extra charge though."

"Alright, thank you." He said looking through really quick. "I'd like the shrimp meal. You can have it cooked in the kitchen."

"Alright, it'll be about fifteen minutes." She said scribbling a note on a piece of paper and setting it up on the counter. She walked away and Naruto set the letters on the table and began reading the first one, making out only a few seconds here and there.

_'Sensai, I loved your new book. It's helped Kushina and I decided something, you should come and see…' 'it's growing, still don't know if it's a…' 'it's godfather, I think that…'_ The rest of the letter was too long gone to read.

Naruto put it back in its envelope and pulled out the next one. This one was short and perfectly preserved. _'Hey old man, you told me to let you know the due date, it's October 17th. Minato thinks it'll be earlier than that. You better be here for it, I'll need a couple people to scream at. Lovingly, Kushina.'_

_'Yo, Jiraiya-Sensai, I've just asked that girl out, and she said yes. I know you're probably going on in your head now about something else, but I really like her, she's really talented, although I really can't get a word in edge wise. I want you to come and met her if you will come back to the village for a couple days. Let me know soon. Minato. Oh, and PS, my bid as the next Hokage went through, I have a chance, isn't that awesome?'_

"Um… Naruto?" Naruto set the letter down and saw Hinata standing in front of him. "Good morning. I'm sorry if… Um…"

"It's okay, Hinata. You should see the stitches I had to get from when Sakura hit me this one time, except I think my hair grew back over it…" Naruto got lost in his thoughts and snapped back. "Sorry, do you want some food?"

"No, I'm just heading back to Konoha. I went to your room to apologize but you weren't there." She said quietly. "Anyway… I'll see you later?"

"Yep, back at the village." Naruto said and smiled trying to think of what to do, but all he could do is act like he knew nothing. Hinata began walking out and suddenly a man rushed in sat down on the floor exhausted. Naruto rushed up to him and so did Hinata, "hey, guy, are you okay?"

"There's a man with a gun out there." He said quietly watching the open space under the flaps. Two pairs of shoes stopped on the other side and Naruto clenched his fist.

He brushed the flaps aside and found Sai on the other side. "Ah, good morning Naruto-kun, Hinata-san." Naruto looked past Sai and saw the body on a man lying on the ground.

"You took him out?" Naruto asked.

"Yes. He was a threat to the peace of this city."

"Aright," Naruto said and went back to sit down. He folded up the letter and put it back in the envelope. He picked up the next on and Sai walked over. "Can I…"

"Go ahead." Naruto said. Sai sat down and Naruto read through the next letter, what he could of it anyway. _'Yo, what's new, Sensai? Anyway, today I got my genin. I wish you were here to see it, I've got Konoha's White Fang's child, his name's Kakashi, he's quite bright. There's also a very cute little girl named Rin, she already has some healing abilities, she also reminds me a lot…'_

"If only most of this wasn't faded away." Naruto said.

"Old letters?" Sai inquired. The waitress walked over and asked him if he would be joining Naruto. "No, I've already eaten." She walked away with clicking heels.

"They're from the fourth Hokage to Jiraiya." Naruto said and put the letter back replacing it with the last one.

'Hey Sensai. You sure did surprise everyone when you showed up at the wedding. We weren't expecting… Anyway, a new book, I can't wait to read it! I'm sure it'll be even better then the last one! Minato.'

"They wrote to each other a lot it seems." Naruto said as his food was set down on the table. He looked up at Sai who had gotten out his sketch book. "Sai, you seem cold and decisive. Maybe you can help me."

"I will do my best. What is it?"

"So, I have these two girls that love me, I like one and love on back, thing is, the one I love is really hot tempered and the liked one goes crazy that I don't like her back. What would you do?"

"Personally, I would dump them both." Sai said and Naruto began eating. "I think, for this purpose, only you should make this choice."

"That doesn't really help. I know what I'm going to do, but I have a feeling out there, that millions upon millions of teenage girls will be pissed at me."

Sai put on a confused face. "I didn't know you could get that as a feeling."

"I get it all the time…" Naruto said and finished up the shrimp. "I want to go and see Sakura-chan. It was kind of awkward last night saying goodbye."

"Why? Did you ask her the same question as you asked me?" Sai said and put his sketch book back.

Naruto shook his head. "Sai you're helpless." Sai shrugged.

"Just a minute." Sakura said. She had just put her bathing suit on to go down to the beach when she heard the knock at the door. She grabbed her sarong and wrapped it around her and went out to open the door. She saw Naruto standing there with a dumb smile on his face. "What did you do now?"

"Nothing really. I just came by to see you." He said. Sakura was a little taken a back.

She stepped back. "Eh… okay." She lifted a hand to invite him in. He walked in slowly and Sakura shut the door behind him.

"Last night. I'm sorry I freaked out on you."

* * *

_'What do you mean?! How could you know something like that and not tell me?'_

_'Why are you just yelling at me? Everyone knew, it's not my job to tell you! Anyway, we figured you just ended up ruining it!'_

_'Ruin what?'_

_'Your friendship with Hinata. You couldn't handle her, you're not careful enough! She needs someone who's careful.'_

_'Who said I would even go out with her!'_

* * *

"I just should have kept my mouth shut." Sakura said grabbing a hair tie from the dresser. "It wasn't my place to tell you, I mean Hinata's been trying to tell you for all these years."

"It just saves me trouble." Naruto said looking down at the floor. "I would have said no to her."

Sakura stopped. "What? Really? Why, she's sweet, kind and…"

"I like… someone else." Naruto said. He immediately left the room. Sakura bit her lip then looked up into the mirror and realized that she looked like Tsunade and pulled her hair tie out. She took the sarong off and jumped out the window onto the beach and moved quickly into one of the hotel's lounging chair. 'I'm just going to tan this all away. That's what I'm going to do… I'm going to ignore what Naruto said about…. Ignore Sakura! Ignore!'

* * *

"Temari!" Matsuri yelled jumping on her back. "I found you."

Temari grabbed her with one arm and threw her off. "I'm you squad captain! You don't jump on my back!" Matsuri, who had been practicing, released her secret move, very large sad eye. Temari sighed and walked away. "That only works on Gaara!"

"DAMN!" Matsuri yelled and walked after her. "Temari, I'm kind of hungry, can we get lunch?"

"Really? Didn't you just eat two hours ago?" Temari said turning around. Matsuri nodded.

"Please, I worked it all off recruiting the shinobi I could for the festival tournaments." Matsuri stopped and tried again to get Temari's sympathy.

"Here, go feed yourself." Shikamaru said walking up and handing her a bill.

"THANK YOU!" Matsuri tried to jump on him but he moved. "Alright then, later Temari."

"You shouldn't spoil her, Gaara does enough of that." Shikamaru shrugged. He looked over to the Hokage's office, "she wants to see me?"

"Yeah, let's go." He said and they took off for the Hokage's building. "So, that's Gaara's star pupil?"

"Yeah, she acts more mature around Gaara and the rest of my team though."

"Reminds me of Naruto." Shikamaru laughed.

They arrived in the office to have Tsunade hand Temari a package. "I need you two to head over to the sand village." Tsunade held out another package to Shikamaru. "You need to get there stat." Tsunade said calmly. "Both packages go directly to the Kazekage."

"Yes, Hokage-sama!" Temari said. Temari turned to go out the window and Shikamaru sighed. He turned and stepped out onto the streets. Temari landed next to him. "We need to find Matsuri."

"I have a better idea." He said and turned to see Ino coming down the street. "INO!"

"WHAT!" She said coming up.

"Can you watch Matsuri for me while Shika and I are gone?" Temari asked. "She has brown hair, big puppy dog eyes, and eats… a lot."

"She's also in sand shinobi attire."

"Got it." Ino said. "Where's she at?"

"Eating." Temari said. "Alright. Let's go!" They jumped away and Ino smiled to herself. "It would be so cute to see them get together." Ino walked down the street and found a grill where she saw Matsuri sitting. She entered and found she was sitting with Chouji and Lee. "You're Matsuri, right?"

Matsuri looked up. "Yeah. Who are you?"

"I'm Ino, Temari and Shikamaru just left for the wind country, I'm in charge of you." Ino said. "So, what's up guys?"

"We're planning for the festival! They have a taijutsus competition that I will surely win, and if not, I will surely lose to Guy-Sensai!" Lee yelled standing on the seat.

"GET DOWN!" Chouji yelled through sticks of Barbeque. Lee calmly sat down and continued. "They even have a food eating contest for Chouji!"

"Wow… How much is it?" Ino said taking a pamphlet from Matsuri. "48,000 yen per person! That's outrageous."

"Yeah, but we seal off part of the city and vendor go there and give out free food and clothing. It's well worth it." Matsuri said shoveling down a stick of Barbeque. "Last year Gaara-sempai took me and I got at least ten new outfits for nothing."

"I wish someone would take me." Ino said and handed back the pamphlet.

"Hello Ino, Lee, Chouji, umm…" Hinata said walking in. "What's going on."

"This, it's a festival…"

"In Sunagakure, I already know. Naruto's taking Sakura there. They showed me the brochure and tickets last night. Kankuro gave them to Naruto as a present." Hinata said trying to smile. "Except, I think his tickets were all access."

"Now those tickets are expensive." Matsuri said. She opened the pamphlet and pointed to the price. Ino looked at it. "That's almost a year's salary for me!"

* * *

The phone rang in Naruto's room. He had fallen asleep. He looked around and found a blue phone on the wall and tugged on the cord until it fell near him. "Uh… hello…"

"What are you doing sleeping at this time of day?"

"Um… sleeping, I think."

"Well get up, I need you to go to town and buy me Aloe Vera. I stayed in the sun too long."

Naruto stood up and stretched. "How many bottles do you need? Two?"

"Get four just in case."

"Alright, bye." He said and hung up the phone, grabbed his money and walked out the door. He, instead of going into the elevator, just found an open window at the end of the hall and jumped out and walked to the nearest medicine shop. He walked in and suddenly out of nowhere an old man with a giant nose jumped out infront of him. Naruto screamed and backed up. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?"

"You looked like you were sleep walking."

"THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU POP OUT AND SCARE PEOPLE!" Naruto took a couple of deep breaths and calmed down. "hey old man, who runs this shop?"

"I do, what do you need, anti-sleep walking pills?" He said holding out a red bottle.

"I DON'T SLEEP WALK. I need Aloe Vera, four bottles."

"Well, we have the four ounce, the eight ounce, and the thirty-two ounce." The man said. "Right now on the thirty two ounce it's buy one get one half off."

"Well, I guess I'll take four of the thirty-two ounces." Naruto said and the old man quickly set them in a bag in front of him. "How much?"

"1,664 please." Naruto paid him and slowly made his way back to the hotel, simply climbing up the wall and into the floor from the window. He went and knocked on Sakura's door, she opened it. "You, you need to stay out of the sun." He said as she noticed she was bright red everywhere.

"Yeah." She said taking the bag. "What do I owe you?"

"It was pretty cheap, consider it a gift." He said and waved walking over to his room. "Good…" he yawned, "night Sakura-chan."

* * *

"You're pretty fast, always figured you'd be quite slow." Temari said, impressed that she was having trouble keeping up with Shikamaru. "Especially since you always take so long doing stuff."

"It's called 'lazy' and I have to get over it soon. I'll have a child to help raise." He said and took another large leap foreword.

"So, are you taking it as uncle or just Shika?" Temari asked. He scratched his head. "Don't do that, I know you better."

He landed and looked at her. "Uncle I hope, why?"

"I don't know, it's just weird that you be in charge of a child. You're really lazy."

"I told you," he said taking off. She had to try even harder now to catch up with him. "I'm getting over it."

* * *

"You have to rip it like a band-aid!" Matsuri yelled. Chouji shook his head.

Ino stepped foreword, "she's completely right, just admit it quickly and you'll get better!"

"You can look like me!" Lee yelled making a pose. Chouji began cursing.

"JUST SAY IT!" Matsuri yelled in his face.

"I HAVE A WEIGHT PROBLEM!" Chouji screamed. He took a deep breath. "Actually, I don't feel that bad."

"Now we can start you on a diet!" Ino said happily.

"I may have a weight problem, but there's no way I'm going on a diet!" He screamed at Ino and walked out of the park. Matsuri patted Ino's back. "One step at a time, Ino-san, one step at a time."


	7. Chapter 7

_"Ah, it's Sakura…" Said the deep menacing voice. She turned her head slowly to see the dark figure upon the ledge. She slowly let go of Sai's shirt to stare in amazement._

_"Sas-u-ke-kun…" She said slowly._

_"Like there's any chance someone who couldn't save a friend, could become Hokage, don't you think Sasuke…?"_

_"You're going to end up losing you're life, all at a whim of mine." Sasuke pulled the sword out._

"AHH!" Sakura screamed waking up in a cold sweat. She found herself sitting up with a hand over her chest; she turned and saw that the early morning light was just seeping in through the shutters. The bandages were getting loose so she bit off a piece so she can unwrap it and see her hands again.

There was a knock at the door right after she got her first hand unwrapped to see the stale blood all over it. "Come in."

The door opened and Sai stepped inside wearing his normal outfit. "I heard you scream. Are you alright?"

"Yes, it was just a bad dream." She said starting to take off the other hand's wrappings. "So what are you doing up this early?"

"Drawing. I took Sakura-san's advice and am spending my spare time drawing." He said and pulled out a sketch book with several drawings in it. "Might I ask why you have painted yourself red?"

"I didn't." She said in a flat tone. "It's called sun burn." She pulled off the last little bit and gathered up the wrappings and threw them in the waste basket. "Sai, go wake Naruto up, we have to leave soon."

"Alright, see you later Sakura-san." Sai said walking out of the room, shutting the door. Sakura got up and walked over in the bathroom and turned on the warm water letting it run over her hands. She wiped off the rest of the blood with a small hand towel and began to go around packing.

* * *

"Come on, you can keep up." Shikamaru teased Temari. "Guy and Lee go twice this pace."

"Well, I'm sorry." She said jumping ahead with her last amount of energy and landing on a tree limb cover in moss. It was then she realized she was slipping. Her foot had completely moved off the branch when Shikamaru grabbed her and they landed on the tree over.

"Maybe you do need to rest for a bit." Shikamaru said. He sat down and pulled out a small snack bar. "Here, eat this. You're over exhausted."

"And I thought I was hard to travel with." She said taking the bar from him. She opened and began eating it. "Were what, maybe four hours away."

"Three at my pace." Shikamaru looking around took a deep breath. "Come on, let's keep going."

"I thought you were going to let me rest?" Temari said a little upset. Shikamaru shrugged. "The documents can't be that important."

"They could be. Tsunade usually won't send me out unless she has to." Shikamaru said. "Come on, I'll carry you for a bit."

"I don't need…" Temari said but Shikamaru had already picked her up and kept going. "You're too damn stubborn."

"I'm just too lazy to argue with you." He said going just as fast as before. Temari stopped and stared up at the leaves past to fast for her to see them. She slowly and quietly drifted away into a sleep.

* * *

"Come on, let's go." Sakura said slowly trying to put on her bag. "OW!"

Naruto grabbed it from her and put it on his shoulder. "You're too burnt to carry anything."

"Well, I know that, but you can't always carry everything for me when I stay out too long in the sun." She said and began walking out after Sai.

"Who says I can't?" Naruto said slowing to look at her. He moved on a head and met up with Sai who was happily looking at the people around him. "Hey, Sai."

"Huh, what is it Naruto?" Sai said stopping.

"I'm going to detour a bit alright. You and Sakura-chan go ahead, I'll see you at Konoha a little later." Naruto ran off randomly into town.

"Where the hell is he going with my things?!" Sakura yelled at Sai.

"Uh, I'm not exactly sure. He said he was detouring and that he would met us later in Konoha." Said Sai shrinking away, knowing that Sakura usually attacked people when she got like this.

* * *

"Do you know anything further?" Gaara said. Temari opened her eyes to the sound of her little brother's voice. She looked around and saw that she was on the couch in the Kazekage's office.

"Only that they like targeting ships so far." Shikamaru said. Temari didn't feel like moving so just laid there listening to them. "They gather up everyone on the ship and detonate strings of explosives around them. They intend to kill as many people as possible."

"I see. And they have no actual ninjas amongst them?" Gaara said standing up. "I'll get scouts out immediately. Give this to Tsunade directly. Tell her we will be standing by with extra guards at our board if she needs call on them."

"Yes, Kazekage." Shikamaru said beginning to walk out of the office.

"Hey, Shika!" Temari called out.

"Oh no, you're awake." He said turning to her.

"Don't forget to send Matsuri back." Temari said and she fell back asleep.

"Alright, alright." He said walking out of the office. Gaara opened the bottom draw of his desk and pulled out a blanket and laid it over Temari then sat back down and began to read through his files.

* * *

"Ino-san! I'm hungry! Can we get some ramen?" Matsuri asked walking behind her.

Ino turned to Matsuri and looked at her in disgust. "You're eating as much as Chouji does! Aren't you worried you'll get fat?"

"Nope! I have a very high metabo… metaba…. I digest quickly." She said trying to think of the word. "I can't remember what it's called."

"Metabolism. And it deals with burning fat not digestion." Ino said as the stopped in front of a ramen shop. "Here's enough for a bowl or two. I'll be at the flower shop, remember where that is?"

"Yep, I'll see you there in a little bit." Matsuri said taking her money and grabbing a seat.

* * *

Sakura easily kept up with Sai who was going along drawing birds or flowers he saw along their way back to Konoha. Sakura kept quiet, trying not to pick at her flaking skin. She pulled out a the small vile of Aloe Vera she filled last night and poured it over her face which was hurting the most and rubbed it in.

She took a deep breath and flung herself foreword on the same branch as Sai. "Can I see what you're drawing?"

"I'm just shading it in, here." He said handing her the note book.

She was looking down at a large flower with a bird landing near it. "This is beautiful. I bet if you started painting like this, you could make a lot of money."

"I already have a lot of money; I don't see the point of getting more." He said. "In fact, it's kind of annoying carrying it around everywhere."

"I know why don't you donate some to charity? Help the less fortunate." She handed it back. They jumped on the next tree limb. "That be a really nice thing you could do."

"That would be. I never thought of that." He said. "But I don't know of any charities."

"I can get the list of register charities when we get back, then you can go through and pick on you like. There's even a charity to donate art materials to the academy."

"That would be nice." They jumped from the next limb. "I wonder where Naruto-kun is."

"I know what he better not be doing. He better not be going through my things." She growled and Sai moved farther away from her.

* * *

Naruto was still wandering the streets and found a small little shop that he entered. A small little woman approached him. "Hello, can I help you?"

"Uh, yeah actually. I need to find a good Kimono, I'm going to a festival in Sunagakure. Do you have anything to recommend?" He asked the woman. She nodded and walked into the back and came back out with a large box.

"Come and try it on, It's one of my better ones, it will cost you though." She said and Naruto felt his pocket. He had spent some money but still had a lot left.

"Okay." Naruto grabbed the box and went into the small changing room. He took his jacket off and put the Kimono on. He stepped out and showed the man, "can you help me get the bottom on?"

"Sure, just hold it together." The old woman grabbed the bottom part and wrapped it around him tying it in the back. "How do you like that?"

Naruto went over and looked in the mirrior. "That's awesome!" He said smiling. "How much?" He asked. The woman whispered the amount in his ear and he sighed. "That's all my money, but, it's worth it for Sakura-chan."

"Oh, buying to impress a girl?" The old woman asked as she undid the bottom. Naruto changed out and put his coat back on. He put the kimono away and shoved it in his bag and pulled out basically all his money and gave it to her. "You know, I might have one more thing for you, completely free of charge since you have paid me immediately."

Naruto watched the old woman move slowly across the room and pick up a small box on the counter, open it and set it back down and than pick up another box and do the same. She stood for a minute and grabbed both. "A gift, because you look so adorable in that Kimono." She said smiling.

"Thank you. That's very kind." Naruto said and put them away in the large chest.

"Might I inquire what's in the large box?"

"Letters." Naruto said and he put in on his back and grabbed Sakura's bag. "Thank you."

"Come again." The old woman said. She waved him out the door.

* * *

There was a knock at the door at around seven in the evening and Mrs. Haruno answered the door. "Oh, hello, Naruto. Sakura's not here right now."

"I just came to drop off her bag, she couldn't carry it home because she was so sun burnt. Here." He said handing it to her.

"Alright than. See you later." She said smiling.

"Bye." Naruto said walking away into the middle of the street and jumping off into the night. He felt the wind against him and it felt good. Night was slowly setting over and he jumped down into the hall in front of his apartment. He pulled out the keys and unlocked the door.

He walked inside and set the chest down. "Oh… now I can get some sleep." He shut the door and fell down onto the bed.

Naruto took a deep breath and turned over to stare out the window of his room.

* * *

Shikamaru was quickly hopping over the tree limbs than stopped and jumped back as the branch he had stepped on exploded. "Come down and play."

A few men and a few women stepped out of the shadows and looked at him. "I think we scared him." A girl said. She threw a kunai at him with an explosive not. Shikamaru caught it.

"Really Ninjas through a lot faster then that." He flung it back at them they tried to move quickly but the note exploded. "That's how you throw something."

"I'll remember that." Shikamaru turned around to see the girl standing behind him. "I never got kunai, but speed is something I can do. See you around cutie." She said and was gone.

Shikamaru dropped down and pulled out a kunai. "Kazekage's orders. Destroy Lysion."

* * *

"Shizune!" Sakura said walking over to her. "It's good to see you again. Can you heal sun burns?" Sakura asked holding out her arm.

"Nope, you have to live through that, Sakura." Shizune said laughing. "Oh, did you want to see Tsunade-sama? I think she was going to turn in soon."

"Yeah." Sakura said.

"Come on, I'll walk with you." Shizune said and she joined Sakura down to the door. "So, how was your trip."

"Good, better if all those ships didn't explode." She said and knocked on the Hokage's office door.

"Come in!" Tsunade roared from behind the door. Sakura opened the door and walked in. "Good evening Tsunade-sama."

"Oh, Sakura." Tsuande said putting on a smile. "Fell asleep in the sun huh?"

"Yeah. Um Tsunade-sama, there's a festival in Sunagakure." Sakura said.

"I'm sorry, everyone's been asking for me to fund them and I'm sorry, but that's expensive." Tsunade said.

"Kankuro sent Naruto tickets. We just need time off." She said. Tsunade was a little surprised. "May we please have the week off Tsunade-sama?"

"That, I guess it's okay. It's in a couple of weeks, maybe we'll have the situation under control. However, you and the rest of Team Kakashi must be ready tomorrow at sunrise, you're going out on a kill-all mission."

"Kill-all?" Sakura said.

She left the office and went to Sai's apartment and pounded on the door. "Sai, are you home?"

The door opened. "Sakura-san."

"Tomorrow we need to meet at the Hokage's office at sunrise. We have a mission." Sai nodded. "I have to go tell everyone else. See you."

"Bye." Sai waved and closed the door going back to drawing.

Sakura continued on and spotted Kakashi and Yamato strolling with Kurenai. She dropped down onto the streets. "Kaki-Sensai, Captain Yamato. We meet tomorrow at sunrise at the Hokage's office."

"Tsunade said she was going to give us the day off tomorrow." Kakashi said.

"Apparently it's some type of coordinated effort with the Sand." She said. Sakura nodded and jumped going over to where Naruto's apartment and landed on his wall and knocked on the window where she could see him sleeping.

She knocked and he looked up and opened the window. "Sunrise tomorrow we have to meet at Tsunade-sama's office."

"Okay," He said sitting up and yawning. "Did you ask her about the festival?"

"We got the time off." Sakura said smiling. "Apparently everyone's been asking her for money for tickets."

"I'm surprised Lee didn't get one from Gaara, they love to fight each other."

"Apparently Guy's taking Lee. I ran into them on the way to Sai's. They have bright green Kimonos." She laughed.

"Man, they really need to know about how bad they look." Sakura shrugged.

"I'll see you in the morning." She said and dropped down onto the street and walked away. Naruto stood up and went over to the chest and pulled out the boxes. He opened the first one and picked it out. It was a comb set, two small combs with crystal flowers dangling from them. He put them back in the box and set them on the his dresser then opened the other box.

This time he pulled out a large gold comb with the end shaped in flowers with the same crystal flowers hanging down. "I wonder how much this costs?" Naruto asked himself flipping over the box. "THAT'S EXPENSIVE!"


	8. Chapter 8

**Aki:** Good (insert morning, day, or night), just a little note from me to the readers, if you're going to write a review, THAN WRITE A REVIEW OF THE STORY! I update everyday, you don't need to post update soon. I consider it disrespectful to my craft even though I know you like/love the story and want more, please understand that I know this, I get yelled at on me real novels too for not updating every other second, but writing decent work takes time. Sincerely, Aki Vos, your loving writer.

**Aki cont...** Totally forgot **THIS CH HAS SOME HARSH LANGUAGE**. I don't feel bad about it though, Naruto swears a lot, and Sasuke is ridiculous with the f-word. Anyway, read-on readers!

**Aki yet again...:** Anyway, I'd like someone to tell me if they like the character Navi, like a nice decent review, 1 or 2 lines, of her personality and everything. Thank you!

* * *

The alarm went off at five in the morning, Naruto looked across and the still black sky and sat up. He got up and went into the bathroom and turned the shower on. He stripped and stepped in without testing the water than jumped out quickly after learning it was cold. "I'm awake…" He said and stuck his hand in waiting for it to turn warm and got back in. "Stupid shower…"

He finished and stepped out and grabbed a towel to go back into his room and picked out his clothes and get dressed. He jumped out the window and closed in then walked down the wall and onto a wire then to the post where the wire was hung from. "It's a good day today! Naruto Uzumaki… HERE I GO!" He yelled jumping from rooftop to rooftop as the sun was breaching the sky.

* * *

Sai's alarm went off at five as well. He however stood up and grabbed his backpack and began placing his drawing items in there. Lastly, he put in his scrolls leaving one out. He peacefully looked at all his paintings around the room. He turned back to the scroll he left out and drew a giant hawk.

He put the paintbrush and ink away in the empty end of the scroll and picked out his clothes. He came across the swim trunks Sakura had picked out for him and shoved them in the bag as well. Dressing he saw a little bit of light come in through the window. He opened the window and spun the scroll. "Choujuu Giga."

The giant Hawk flew outside the window. Said grabbed his bag and the scroll and jumped down onto the beast flying over to the Hokage's office.

* * *

"Sakura, get up already! You asked to woken up at five!" Sakura rolled over and her mother knew what was going to happen. "Sakura… I'll read you're diary…"

"HOW DID YOU KNOW I HAD A DIARY!" Sakura said jumping up on her bed pointing an accusing finger at her mother.

"I didn't, you told me." Her mother said walking out of the room slamming the door. Sakura lowered her finger. "Damn…" She jumped down and grabbed her shirt and shirt and put them on the bed and closed the shades.

"SAKURA! Do you want breakfast!"

"No!" She said taking off her pajamas.

"What about a waffle?"

"I don't have time!" She yelled making a fist.

"If you had woken up earlier… Do you want a snack bar at least? You're getting to skinny!" Her mother yelled up at her.

Sakura dressed and went down the stairs. Her mother popped out and handed her the snack bar. "At least eat this on the way there."

"Okay…"

"And then, this one for lunch…" Her mother said opening her weapons pouch and shoving it in, "you know what; I'll put in the box." Her mother kissed her on the forehead. "Bye-bye, sweetie. Don't get yourself killed, and say hello to Naruto for me. And tell the Hokage-sama I said hi and…"

"Mom!" Sakura said. "Bye." She hugged her and happily walked out the door unwrapping the bar and taking a bite of it; she chewed for a minute and pulled away. "This is actually pretty good." She took another bit and jumped up on the rooftops.

* * *

Kakashi and Yamato stood outside the office waiting for their team to arrive. "Sunrise was two minutes ago. They're all late." Kakashi said and scratched his hair.

"You know, most people consider sunrise after the sun is fully up." Yamato said.

"You don't say? I didn't know that, I always thought sunrise was when the sun began to rise. Oh well." Kakashi said. Tsunade walked down the hallway and looked at them, "you're a couple minutes early."

"Sorry." Kakashi said. "I don't really have anything better to do with my time now that there will be no more books coming out." He sighed and looked out over to the opening down the hall. It went black for a split second and Sai dropped down.

He walked over and bowed his head. "Good morning."

"Hello Sai." Yamato said.

"Have you seen Naruto and Saukra?" Kakashi asked.

"Were here!" Sakura said jumping up Naruto right behind her. Tsunade nodded and opened the door. She walked in and sat down. "Close the door behind you."

They walked in and Yamato closed the door. "You're going to meet a team lead by Gaara of the Sand and take out the main base of a new threat. My apprentice Navi is there, she'll meet you at noon in the town over. That's all I'm willing to discuss here. Here are the meeting place and the instructions."

She handed a piece of paper to Kakashi. "You should be back here by tonight, but I'm warning you, be careful."

"Hokage-sama." Shikamaru said jumping in through the window. "Sorry I'm late, I had to find Matsuri."

"Hello all!" Matsuri said jumping in the window. "I had to eat before I left. My bad were late." She said smiling.

"Matsuri, Temari has run you on kill-all missions correct?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama." Matsuri said standing still for once.

"Good, you all are on kill-all. Anyone that threatens you, kill. If they are the enemy, no matter what, kill. You run completely silent. Now go."

They slowly filed out of the office and took off across the roof tops, Kakashi reading the note. He motioned south with and hands and they turned and began heading that way, jumping over the buildings than through the thick forests.

* * *

"Kankuro, you're pacing too much." Temari said sourly. "They're coming."

"I know, it's just I'm bored." Kankuro said still pacing back and fourth threw out the tree. "It's just we were expecting them ten minutes ago."

"You're worrying to much too, Kankuro, why don't you listen to Temari." Gaara said looking down on them. He was standing on the top part of the branch trying to spot them. He was leaning foreword a bit to offset the weight of the gourd on his back. "I see movement in the trees."

"How far away?" Kankuro asked.

"Give them a few seconds." Gaara dropped down next to them. It was then that Team Kakashi broken through. "Good, let's get going."

"Sempai!" Matsuri said jumping out next to him. "I advertised the festival as you told me too."

"Good." Gaara said smiling at her. He turned back to Kakashi, "we've located then at their main fortress, they're being lead by a former mist ninja name Youki. She's not that dangerous, but she's fast and hard to catch. They're base is an hour from here, let's move."

* * *

Navi sat at the a bar taking a sip of Sake. She made the drink last and paid for it and walked out finding the tree she had arranged to meet the teams at. At first she was bored then she found something to do. It was rather remembered. Navi got out a Kunai, tossed it in the air and kicked it at the tree. The Kunai went straight through.

"Five points," She said walking over then she noticed something and looked up. "Wow, a ninja tree… Didn't know those existed." She said smiling. "Personally, I know Tsunade's expecting me to lead you there, but I'm tired. It's a giant abandoned building that way."

"Navi, you're supposed to do the job you're assigned to."

"You're point being, Kakashi-kun? I'm old, I get my liberties. Do you know how much Chakra it takes to keep up this appearance?" She said.

"Kakashi-sensai," Sakura said turning towards him, "does this count as getting in the way?"

"No… although the idea popped in my head too." He said. "Navi, is there anything we need to know about the building?"

"Yeah, don't go through the main entrance, there's a hatch on the roof. Anyway, I'll see you guys in a month, I'm going to go get drunk." She said wandering back in the bar. There was a 'hurrah' from the entire bar of patrons when she walked back in.

"We should split into smaller teams so infiltration is easier." Gaara said.

"Good idea, Kazekage." Kakashi said. "We can split into five teams. Would you like to do the divisions?"

"Kankuro, you and Naruto will be one team, Temari and Sakura will be another. I'll take Matsuri. Kakashi and Shikamaru, then the Captain and Sai. We run completely silent, no noise what so ever." Gaara said.

They headed out down from the tree and ran through the crowds scaring the people in the village. Gaara made hand motions, Kankuro and Naruto headed east with Temari and Sakura heading west. Gaara signaled more and Kakashi and Shikamaru went underground and Sai and Yamato headed up with Sai's giant hawk.

"Matsuri, we're the diversion. Be ready to attack and kill."

"Yes, Gaara-Sempai." She responded quickly. They raced over to the building and Gaara sent the sand on his back barreling towards the doors breaking them open and flooding the main room. They stopped at the door way.

"Is this Lysion?" He yelled. The people looked at him and then suddenly everyone smiled.

"Came to join?" Yelled a man from the middle of the room.

"Quicksand Waterfall." Gaara said quietly and the room filled with sand quickly. Several people jumped out leaving most behind. "Desert Funeral!" He bellowed closing his hand. There were screams everywhere.

"What the fuck are you!" Yelled a girl jumping down on to the sand. "Coming in here and killing my men!"

Matsuri smiled. "A distraction." She put her hands to her chest. "Katsu!" The sand exploded in several different places.

"You should talk to me before putting exploding notes in my sand." Gaara said tamely.

"Sorry, Sempai, I though it would be a good idea." She said pulling out a Kunai.

The girl jumped back and pulled out her own Kunai. "I can beat both of you!"

Suddenly a reserved of corpses fell from the ceiling. "Hey, bitch! Don't threaten my baby brother!" Temari said as Saukra gather up ten more men and dropped them in a giant ball on the ground.

"You should be more worried about your own ass." Naruto yelled from the other side. It was easily seen that he and Kankuro, who was standing quietly behind him, were covered in a thin coat of blood.

Kakashi popped out of the sand. "I cleared the basement. By the way," he said turning to the girl. "You may want to get rat traps."

Yamato and Sai appeared by the door. "The scouts have been taken care of."

"You're the only one that's left." Gaara said. Suddenly a kunai was flung into the room hitting the girl in the chest. Navi calmly walked in, climbed up the sand and walked over to her and puled out the kunai. "200 points." Navi pulled the head band off her and slowly walked out.

"Later." Suddenly another girl landed in front of Navi. "So, you killed my apprentice?"

"It's two hundred points… I wasn't going to waste the opportunity." Navi calmly walked out.

The girl smiled. "So you're Youki." Gaara said impatiently.

"I guess." She said turning towards him. The sand began to follow her around as she moved until she was on the wall running. She ran past Naruto who began to run after her. Her threw kunai and shuriken that she dodged by moving side to side. "This is mildly entertaining."

She stopped suddenly. She looked over at her feet and saw the shadow. "A Jutsus?"

"You should always be aware of you're surroundings." Shikamaru said hanging from the ceiling. "Also, if you're going to try and take over something, get people who actually can sense ninja, I've been standing here for five minutes."

Naruto walked up to her and placed the kunai at her throat. He moved his arm swiftly. Her body fell down onto the sand. Gaara began concentrating and the chakra filled sand slowly made its way back into the gourd. "I want the complex burned."

They slowly made their way out side and Kakashi turned to the building. "Katon: Grand Fire Ball." The burning ball hit the building and filled the room with fire.

"That's the main force; there are still smaller branches to be taken care of. The sand will deal with them though." Gaara said addressing Kakashi. "When you give your report to Tsunade, tell her to be careful, they may attack out of revenge now."

"Yes, Kazekage." Gaara nodded and walked over to Naruto where he was taking off the bloody jacket. "Are you ready for the chunin exams?"

"Definantly, I just feel sorry for your shinobi; I'm going to have to kick their asses." Naruto smiled.

Gaara laughed, "I bet you will. Thankfully Matsuri went last year, she would have started crying the minute you hit her."

"Trying to get sympathy?" Sakura asked.

"No, she doesn't deal with pain well. That's why I teach her how to dodge." Gaara said and held out his hand. Naruto shook it. "Until later."

"Later." Naruto said and Gaara went over to where Temari was shouting at Matsuri. "Kankuro."

"Naruto," Kankuro said nodding at him.

"Thanks for the tickets." Kankuro nodded.

"I hope you know, I expect you to participate in the shinobi battle." Kankuro said and he walked over to where his siblings were.

"Come on, let's get home. I'm want to take a nap." Shikamaru said. "This was a waste of time."

"Stop whining already." Naruto said walking up next to him. They walked back into town to see Navi with a bottle in her hand throwing a kunai and kicking it, but this time, it nearly bust the tree in half.

Kakashi popped down. "You get dangerous when you're drunk."

"Yeah, I suppose." She said. "I'm kind of dizzy, will you carry me back to Konoha?"

"I guess. As long as…"

"Do you guys want to hear war stories?" She said turning around to then. Kakashi sighed and picked up Navi and began jumping away they followed and listen to Navi's drunken rants. "So there we were, on the field of battle! Kunai everywhere, I was busy healing and I was like, what the hell, why don't we have that monkey boss or the big slimy toad out, and Tsunade said that Jiraiya had been injur…. Anyway, we have to go get the pointy hair guy.

"Kakashi, do you remember the pointy hair guy, with the fire robe?"

"The fourth, you mean."

"Yeah, little Minato-chan. You know when he was little he had this frog for like three weeks, and he took it everywhere with him, and it died, and he bawled like a baby for days, until Jiraiya, who was teaching at the academy for a bit, summoned that blasted toad with the armor. He absolutely fell in love with it." She said then leaned her head on Kakashi. "Everything's spinning."

"You don't handle alcohol well, remember?" Kakashi said.

"Nope. Anyway, so we went and got the pointy hair guy and when we got back, it was me, Tsunade, the third, the pointy haired guy and Kushina, and we were like hey, isn't that Kyuubi?" Kakashi threw her a bit. "Right… I won't tell that story… anyway, so… When I was a little kid with Minato he had this problem with walking into walls because he had his hair in the way… it was hilarious! Had that problem up till twelve when Jiraiya force him to cut the front part of his hair for the team picture, anyway, it was hilarious, we'd be doing like training, and he couldn't see the target unless he looked really up, so he looked for it's shadow and used that and hit the mark every single time.

"He was a genius too, like when he learned how to flash, Kakashi, you were there when he flashed first right?"

"Yes, Navi…" Kakashi said bored.

"He flashed into the girls bathroom… I beat the shit out of him. That was fun, he let me beat the shit outa him too, because, I suck at fighting… like, I really do… the only way I can hit the mark with a kunai is if I kick it. I don't know why, but it makes me look totally badass." She said. Kakashi turned his head slightly. "Everyone stay quiet, she fell asleep." He whispered.

They nodded silently. The only noises the wind and the after draft of them jumping from tree to tree. Sakura pulled out the box her mother had given her and pulled out a snack bar. She held the box in front of Shikamaru and he shook his head. She did the same with Naruto and he took one. She then turned and held it out to Sai and captain Yamato. They both shook their heads no as well.

* * *

It was three hours later as they arrived back at Konoha. Kakashi stepped down and tried to find someone to give Navi too. Yamato began to argue. "You agreed to carry her, you deal with her." He whispered back at him.

"I have to give the report, you take her." He whispered back. "What do you expect me to do, carry her into the Hokage's office?"

"Let Tsunade deal with her, she created Navi-sama." Yamato smiled and Kakashi disappeared with Navi. "Alright, I'll see you all later." Yamato disappeared as well.

"I'm going to go get some well deserved sleep." Shikamaru said. "Later." He slowly walked inside the city.

"So what do you guys want to do?" Sakura asked as they all stood their in a circle.

"They've got a new comedy out in the movies." Naruto said pulling out a piece of paper, "and there's a new horror, and a new war movie."

"I'll bite, Sai, do you want to come?" Sakura asked.

"I've never been to a movie."

"What!?" Sakura and Naruto yelled at the same time.

"You've got to be joking." She said waving it off.

"Nope, they didn't let us see movies in Root, Danzou-sama says they cause emotional upheavals."

"Then it's decided, you're going." Naruto said. The three of them made their way into town..comedy out in the movies." a circle. kage'avi too. held it out to Sai and captain Yamato. ght?" pointy haired guy


	9. Chapter 9

**Aki: **Alright, at the very end here, you'll see an unfamiliar name, Tori. You'll see him when Blood of Orochimaru comes out July 11. Just thought I'd give a heads up.

* * *

  


"I'm not saying it's a bad idea…" Sakura said looking up a Tsunade. They were sitting with Shizune and Tonton having tea in one of the lounges in the Hokage's building. Sakura set her cup down and looked over at her teacher. "But, it's a horrible idea."

"Tsunade-sama, I'd have to agree. Not only does Navi refuse to fight, she loves getting drunk even though she can hold her liquor." Shizune added. "This morning she was found sleeping on a park bench by Konohamaru, and when he woke her up, she put the poor little guy in a coma."

"She's just not child friendly, we have to keep her away from the students and young Genin," Sakura said and looked out the window. Sakura panicked for a second, "Shizune what time is it?"

Shizune looked at her watch, "Two minutes to Noon. Why?"

Sakura stood up, "I have to go, bye Tsunade-sama, by Shizune, later Tonton." Tonton squealed and Sakura ran out the door and was seen jumping down the building and on to the main street.

"Where's she off to in such a hurry?" Shizune asked.

Tsunade smiled and took a quick sip of her tea. She set the glass down and pulled a small bottle of Sake out of the couch. "It's about time she got going. I was starting to sober up." She said and took a quick sip of the Sake. "I'm surprised she didn't tell you, she has a date today at Noon."

"With who?" Shizune asked pouring herself more tea. Tsunade just smiled.

* * *

"Sorry I'm late; I was trying to convince Tsunade not to make Navi the head of some Genin." Sakura said landing a little uncomfortably in her high heels.

"That's better then Sensai's reason for being late." Naruto said looking over at the Jounin.

Kakashi was leaning up against the fence and looked down over at them. "What, I wasn't lying, there really was a girl down by the river being attacked by enemy ninja!"

"That's just silly." Sakura said and looked down into town. "So, where's Sai and Captain Yamato?"

"I'm here!" Yamato said dropping in, "I was just filing the paper work for the girl that Kakashi found down by the river."

"Told you!" Kakashi said pleased with himself. "I knew I wasn't lying."

"Wow, that's strange." Naruto said.

"Maybe it's a sign of bad luck?" Sakura said.

"What's bad luck?" Sai said coming up behind them.

"Kakashi was telling the truth about why he was late." Sakura said. "Well, that's all of us, let's go!"

"Nope," Kakashi said. "There's three more coming."

"Who else did you invite, Kaki-Sensai?" Naruto asked, fidgeting in his tie. "And why do we have to dress up!?"

"Naruto, we're going to a five star restaurant! They won't let you in in you're normal clothes." Sakura said, "Sai's not complaining."

"I know, I know, but Sai's weird!" Naruto said then looked over at Sai, "no offense."

"None taken." Sai said calmly.

"Sorry were late." Iruka said walking up with Kurenai and Shikamaru. "Kurenai had trouble picking out shoes."

"I did not, it's just I had to pick the right shoes to go with this dress." She said in her defense. "Let's get out of this heat before I have a heat stroke."

"Don't joke about that." Shikamaru said blandly. "It was bad enough when you had it the other day."

"Alright, come on." Kakashi said.

"Hey Iruka-Sensai, they're not going to make Navi a Genin captain are they?" Sakura asked walking up next to him. "We've been trying to convince Tsunade-sama that she shouldn't but she's being stubborn."

"Maybe Kakashi should field your question." Iruka said looking at her. "He can explain it better."

"Sensai?" Sakura said turning towards him.

"What you've seen on Navi so far, is her at the bottom of a bottle. She's not like that at all, in fact, you get her sober, and she's the most incredible medical ninja in the world. She's patience, wise, and she knows how to protect people, she just loves… loves not to be sober. She's seen horrific things…"

"She has, she was one of the first on the seen when Minato died." Kurenai said with a note of sorrow in her voice, "they were the best of childhood friends. She always talks about him to remember him. And then, when the village was attacked three years ago… I still haven't told her about Asuma, I'm afraid she'd go into a depressive fit."

They slowly turned into the restaurant and were greeted by a waiter. "Don't worry about her," Kurenai said, "she was my team Captain when I was a Genin."

"Really?" Sakura said and followed her to a giant table. Kurenai nodded and they went to sit down at the large round table.

"Hey, Kaki-Sensai, you never really said what we were doing here…" Naruto said.

"It's a celebration." Kakashi said. "This is the day every year that Yamato and I celebrate everyone who's died, every ninja who's sacrificed their lives for a moment of peace."

"For every shinobi who's died in battle or of old age, sacrificed their lives, families, friends, and forsake them to fight for their country." Yamato said bowing his head.

* * *

"I hate being sober, it makes me remember the bad parts of my life." Navi said slowly staring up at the stone. "At least I can come and talk to you guys. You know, sometimes I wish I was with you, all these… all these things just keep happening…" She said with tears coming down her face. "…and I can't stop them. People just keep dying wherever I go, and whatever I do, I can't stop it. What's the use of being able to heal people if you can't heal yourself?" Navi curled her legs up to her chest and laid her head down and began crying.

"Yo, Navi…" Said a comforting voice coming up behind her. "Time doesn't heal it fast enough does it?" She lifted her head to shake it quickly. "It's okay to feel sad…"

She felt a hand on her back. "Navi… Are you alright."

She looked up, "Sempai… for a minute I thought…" She shook her head.

Tsunade offered her a hand up. "I'm giving you a team of Genin."

"I heard you other apprentices… they don't want me too. I'm pretty close to believing them." Tsunade sat down on the grass and looked up at the monument.

"Thing is I know you… I know what you can do. I know that you're the best damn medical ninja I've ever seen." She took a deep breath. "It was hard for me coming to Konoha too, all the pain of the people who've died, then you look at all the hope of the young ones, and you know that they don't truly understand that one by one, they'll all die, and there's nothing no one can do about it."

"That's not comforting." Navi said laughing a bit. "You were always bad at that."

"Maybe I'm not the one to talk to… I know someone who is. Come with me."

* * *

Suddenly the door burst open at the restaurant and everyone looked as the Hokage entered. "I'm sorry to ruin the party… But I need to borrow Naruto."

"Huh, why?"

"Because, there's someone who needs to see what the future holds." She said puzzling them. Naruto got up and followed her out of the restaurant and up to the top of the Hokage's monument. "Navi…"

The woman jumped down tears in her eyes. "Naruto. Navi's lost nearly everything in her life, her brother, her mother and father, her friends. Why don't you tell her your dream."

"Huh?" Naruto said not seeing how this fit in to what Navi was going through. Tsunade walked away and left them alone. "So… you have no one?"

"Everyone I know… everyone I loved is gone."

"What about Tsunade? She dragged me all the way out here because she thought that somehow, I can help you. What about Kakashi? What about Kurenai? She didn't have to go on that mission and pick you up, she should have stayed home, but she went because of you."

"Really, all she ever does is yell at me now, she's not my little Kurenai-chan anymore." Navi said leaning over the railing looking down.

"Maybe if you didn't go around acting like a drunk, people would respect you more! You can't act like nothing matters! In five months, Kurenai will be a mother with the father dead and gone; does she look like she's giving up that easily?! You can't parade yourself around like that!

"If you keep up this, you'll never be happy! Since the day I was born, I was hated. People shunned me; no one was there for me. Then I met Iruka-Sensai, Kakashi-Sensai, Sakura-chan, Sasuke… and I found my purpose."

"I had a purpose… It was taken from me… I was going to be the world's greatest medical ninja, but those are child's dreams. Who believes in me anymore, to be lectured by a child! I'm 42 years old, I'm not achieving anything else with my life!"

"Then you should die! A person who has that out look on life is barely a person at all!" He yelled at her. Navi was taken aback. "You're sure as hells not acting like you're 42; you're acting like a damn child throwing a fit. Do you think any of you're comrades would ever, ever let you talk about yourself this way. They died for what they believe in, and so am I!"

'This is almost exactly like…' She said and saw Naruto but in a different face. 'Navi-chan, you can't just run away anymore…' 'Tsunade will forgive you for drinking all her Sake…' '…I'm going to become Hokage if I die doing it!'

"My name's Naruto Uzumaki! And I'm going to become Hokage if I die doing it!" He yelled at her. "And you… uh what's you're name…"

"Naruto," she said looking up at him, "thank you."

"Huh? Alright… um, I have to go back to a dinner… so…"

"Would you mind if I tagged along?" She asked whipping her tears, "I'd just like to follow you around a bit longer."

Naruto scratched his head and thought a bit, 'hey! I'm awesome, I should become a public speaker… or does Hokage encompass that? I'll ask Tsunade…' "It's fine; we're celebrating all the fallen ninjas, if that won't depress you."

"No, that'd be great." She said smiling through her tears. "It's just… you grew up just like I imagined you would."

"Huh? Wait, do we know each other?"

"I knew you when you were still in your mother's stomach." She said, and she just kept smiling.

* * *

"Hey, um, she wanted to come." Naruto said walking down and sitting down. Navi followed and looked at everyone, even though she'd clearly been crying. "If it wouldn't bother you, can I join you for dinner?"

"Of course, Sensai." Kurenai said then looked at Shikamaru. He muttered under his breath and pulled another chair over from the other table.

"Thank, Kurenai-chan." She said sitting down and staring up at everyone.

"Well, I was going to say, 'why don't we tell about the ninja we respected the most,' but…" Kakashi said looking over at Navi.

"It's okay, Kakashi-chan."

"Alright, why don't you start, Kurenai, since yours is the most obvious."

"Asuma, he was an amazing man, and he would have made an even better father. He was stong, and gentle…" Kurenai stopped and gave herself a moment, "but I'm proud to know that he died the way he wanted to, protecting his friends." She said smiling up with tears streaming down. She turned to Shikamaru.

"I'd have to say Asuma too… He was the only one who actually knew me for being smart, but lazy. He was the person I trusted most, and I hope that I'm at least half of who he was."

The table turned to Sakura. "The person I respected most was the Third. He was kind and gentle, and always knew what was best for us all. But, now I respect Tsunade-sama more, because I know what she's done to keep this village safe, and that's more then I could ever hope to do."

"Sadly, we didn't have hero's in Root." Sai said, "but, I did respect my brother. He was always there with a smile on his face and he knew what to do. I'll never forget him, he was the only one who kept me alive most of the time."

Naruto sat there quietly looking down. "Jiraiya… I don't know much about respect with him… but I do know, that whatever I do, I'll always have one of his perverted comments to refer too." He said smiling up at everyone. Naruto had brought a lighter note to the table.

"That's how people should be remembered, Naruto," Yamato said. "I will always remember one of my fellow ANBU, who fell when Orochimaru attacked Konoha. He was usually so serious, but he only wanted everyone to be safe and fell protecting the rest of his team, and died asking for one last drink of Sake."

"I remember him, we never got along." Kakashi said, "Never leave your friends behind, I always say it, remembering when I didn't listen to it. Rin, Obito and Minato-Sensai were out on a mission, Sensai split off for a bit. Obito went off after some ninjas and I ordered Rin to follow me. Obito was caught under a large rockslide when I finally realized my mistake. He was dying, there was nothing to save him, and he offered me his Sharigan Eye because I had just lost my eye fighting off the ninjas he followed. I have something to permanently remind me of his kind nature and my biggest mistkate.

"Sakura, Sai, Naruto, Shikamaru, all the Jounin here have learned this, never take your friends for granted, they may not be there tomorrow."

Navi sighed, "Kakashi… You're depressing."

"I'm sorry, Navi-san, I don't mean to." He said apologizing.

"Well, I miss Minato, and Kushina, and that old fart Jiraiya… and the third, and Asuma. I never got to say goodbye to any of them, I wasn't even on speaking terms with Minato when he died, I never got to apologize for calling him a fool. Kushina, I last saw seven months in, she was so happy. Jiraiya, the old coot, I saw last in a bar, four, five years ago, said he was going back to Konoha, said the Third died. I was tempted to go with him to see Tsunade-sama, but I had pissed her off before I left the village. Over all, everyone I knew growing up is gone, except Tsunade-sama. But I'm not worried anymore, I have to future to look at." She said staring over at Naruto.

"And you called me depressing?" Kakashi said. "Yours was horrible."

"Oh and teaching lessons that involve the death of Obito-chan aren't?"

"They don't even know him; it's not that depressing to them."

"Still, it's a death, and you even went into details!"

"HEY! Shut up you two!" Naruto growled. They stopped arguing immediately. "They're all depressing, okay?"

"Sorry, Navi and I just argue a lot. It's the way it's always been." Kakashi said scratching his hair.

"Kaki-Sensai, Navi-sama…" Sakura said looking at them, "grow up."

"Alright, alright, so, when's the food get here?"

"Yeah, we do we order?" Shikamaru said looking at Kakashi.

"The dinner part doesn't open up for another twenty minutes."

"EEE! WHAT DID YOU DRAG US OUT SO EARLY?" Naruto yelled.

"I thought we need time to talk."

"TALKINGS ALL FINE AND WELL, BUT YOU PROMISED US FOOD."

Sakura grabbed him and pulled him back down, "you can wait twenty minutes, you idiot!"

"Ahh… but I'm really hungry, Sakura-chan."

* * *

"How's it going?" Gaara asked walking up to Matsuri as they overlooked the city from atop the Kazekage's building.

"They're planning to section off this east area here, in the business district near the front, so it won't interrupt the populations normal days. They're building the stage against the wall, there." She said pointing out. "It's being made of poured concrete, just as you asked. Why did you ask for that?"

"If I go up against Rock Lee, the concrete will end up splitting in half, but it's better than wood chips flying everywhere." He said, "I've heard some Rock country ninjas have arrived."

"Yes, they wanted to enter someone in the competition at the advanced level. I think his name was Tori." Matsuri said walking away with Gaara. "He did mention one request though."

"A request?"

"He wishes to fight Naruto Uzumaki."

"Then he isn't alone." Gaara said smiling. "He isn't alone."


End file.
